Criminal Conversation

Criminal conversation, adultery. See ADULTERY. The action for this (called crim. Con.) was nominally abolished by the (English) Matrimonial Causes Act, 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 85), s. 59; but s. 33 [replaced by the (English) Judicature Act, 1925, s. 189] gives a husband the right to claim damages from adulterer, either in a petition for dissolution of marriage or for judicial separation,or in a petition limited to that object; and the damages claimed must be assessed by a jury upon the same principles and rules as were formerly applicable to the trial of actions for criminal conversation, and the Court may direct that they be settled for the benefit of the children of the marriage or as a provision for the wife