The Shortest Divorce Case on Record
Following a tragic loss in the family, a quarreling couple returns to court to finalize their separation with surprising speed.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The shortest divorce case on record was tried before Judge Humes yesterday, in which Evelyn M. Warner was separated from A. D. Warner in eighteen minutes by the watch. The marital troubles of this couple were in court before Judge Lichtenberg only a month ago, each seeking to be divorced from the other. After a trial lasting two days he denied both petitions and told the petitioners that they should patch up their differences on account of their little child. The child, however, shortly afterward took sick and on December 2 died. There then being no longer any necessity for the quarreling couple to live together, they agreed to go their ways, after an amicable division of the community property.
“The shortest divorce case on record was tried before Judge Humes yesterday, in which Evelyn M. Warner was separated from A. D. Warner in eighteen minutes.”
This story highlights how personal domestic tragedies often intersect with rigid legal systems, contrasting the slow pace of court proceedings with the sudden finality of a divorce once an agreement is reached.
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