Will this case become a precedent for others like it in the UK and beyond?
A British court has evicted a man from his ancestral home because his wife blames her clinical depression on him.
"Anthony Arbuthnot Watkins Grubb, 59, whose family has owned the Mayes Estate in West Sussex for several generations, has been ordered to move out by a family court judge who granted his wife Jennifer a divorce," reads a story in today's Daily Mail. "Mrs Grubb, 53, claims her husband is an 'emotional bully' who imposed 'extremely prescriptive household rules and regulations' on her and their five children.
"Mr Grubb was given 28 days to move out of the 18th century farmhouse near East Grinstead.... Today, his barrister Nicholas Cusworth QC described the decision to order him out of his ancestral home as 'draconian'....
"The couple, whose five children are aged 13 to 23, got married in 1983. Mayes House -- which is set in several hundred acres of farmland -- was occupied by Mr Grubb's father....
"James Turner QC, acting on behalf of Mrs Grubb, told the court that she had been diagnosed with a 'moderately severe depressive disorder'. He said: 'As a result of her husband's behaviour her health has suffered and will continue to suffer while he remains under the same roof.' Mr Turner added: 'It was the case of Mrs Grubb that her husband was an emotional bully who had been obsessively and inappropriately controlling of her and the five children. He was simply unable to accept the self-evident fact that the marriage had irretrievably broken down and found it impossible to restrain himself from pestering her while they remained under the same roof.'
"Mr Turner claimed that Mr Grubb had made 'constant unjustified criticisms' of his wife.... He also claimed that Mr Grubb had sometimes verbally abused his wife, could be 'domineering and controlling' and had tried to impose 'extremely prescriptive household rules and regulations' on his family.
"Mr Grubb is now awaiting a decision from Lord Justice Wilson on whether he will be allowed to appeal against the decision made by the judge....
"Friends blamed the financial pressures of sending five children to top boarding schools for the marriage breakdown. They said the situation was made worse when Mrs Grubb's children's clothing business failed, costing them £60,000. One friend said: 'She was running the mail order business from home but it collapsed and they lost a lot of money. It was a struggle for them to keep paying the school fees and they were both under a lot of pressure.'
"Mr Grubb described the atmosphere at home as 'tense'. He said: 'We live in the same house but we barely speak. I'm not allowed to say anything to her that could be interpreted as pestering or harassing her. The threshold for this is so low I can ask her if she wants a cup of tea but not much else.'"
