The Appellate Division, Second Department, recently issued a decision in which the fairly new concept of social abandonment was rejected as a ground for divorce.1
While this decision appears to sound the death knell for social abandonment in the Second Department, at least until the Court of Appeals renders a decision in this regard, this article will discuss why we think social abandonment should be a viable cause of action, even if it is considered as a ground for divorce outside the realm of abandonment.2 Thus, even if social abandonment is not recognized in and of itself as a ground for divorce, there is no reason why the same exact allegations that are set forth as a social abandonment cannot be considered grounds for divorce as cruel and inhuman treatment.3
