Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 25

Summary: - The spouses’ adherence to the Ja‘fari school. Its effect where marital disobedience and discord arise from the wife. - The wife’s request for divorce from the husband on grounds of harm and entrenched disagreement between them, and the establishment of this by the 2 arbitrators’ report. Effect: their opinion must be implemented and adopted, and a judgment granting her a single irrevocable divorce on grounds of harm without compensation must be issued. - The judgment under appeal ruling otherwise. This requires its reversal. Rule: It is established in the jurisprudence of the Ja‘fari school, to which both parties adhere, that, if marital disobedience, aversion and discord arise from the wife, the judge shall appoint 2 arbitrators to reconcile them and remove the discord through what he considers appropriate, whether reunion or separation. If they agree on an opinion after their adjudication, the other is bound by it. That being so, it is established from the papers that the appellant sought a judgment divorcing her from the respondent on grounds of harm and entrenched disagreement between them. What is established from the 2 arbitrators’ report, after they ascertained the causes of discord between them and heard her statements, requires that their opinion be implemented and adopted. The appellant’s request must be granted, and a judgment must be issued granting her a single irrevocable divorce from her husband, the respondent, on grounds of harm without compensation. As the judgment under appeal departed from this view, it must be reversed and judgment issued granting the appellant a single irrevocable divorce from the respondent on grounds of harm without compensation, as set out in the operative part.