MR. CUNNINGHAM [Md.]: I’d like to ask a question about the phrase "irretrievably broken." "Irretrievably" to me has a note of finality that worries me a little bit. If this is an important word of art, I wonder if you thought of various alternatives here and finally came to this, and what was the background of the word.
CHAIRMAN MERRILL: The background is this, that it is a term which has crept quite pervasively into the literature. It is, for instance, the language which was used by the Archbishop’s committee in England. It is the language which has been used in various writings in this country. I have here the English bill, "that the marriage has broken down irretrievably"; this is the language used in our sister jurisdiction.
A recent California statute uses the term "irremediable {17} breakdown of the marriage," which is substantially the same type of concept. A decision in my own state, where we have the statutory basis of incompatibility as a ground for divorce, recently stated that this means that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. This is coming to be quite a common phrase in the literature respective to marriage law, and it was for that reason that we chose it. We could try to think of other terms, I suppose, but this seemed desirable. It appears to be a concept that is getting to be quite pervasive in the literature respective to divorce.
MR. KARESH [Columbia, S.C.]: Mr. Chairman, apropos of the remarks that have just been made, I suppose "irretrievable breakdown" can’t be and will not be defined. It’s customary, of course, to define terms for the purposes of an Act, but I imagine in the light of the preliminary remarks attached to the draft that that defies definition and will not be defined; is that correct?
CHAIRMAN MERRILL: At the present time the Committee is not thinking in such terms. However, you will note as we go farther down into the section that there are provisions that in certain types of situations where certain facts appear, this shows that the marriage has irretrievably broken down.