California Annulment Divorce Enforceable Lawyers Attorneys

by

Atchuthan Sriskandarajah

RICHARD MARK, Respondent, v. CLARET MARK, Appellant

Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division Three

August 31, 1945

Facts:

When the husband met the wife, he knew that she was married to another man. The husband induced her to obtain a mail order divorce from Mexico, even though he knew that neither she nor her current husband lived in Mexico. The Mexican divorce having been obtained, the husband married the wife. When the husband later sought to have his marriage to the wife annulled, on the ground that her Mexican divorce was not enforceable, the trial court granted the annulment. Defendant wife appealed the judgment

Issue:

Whether the trial court erred by granting annulment of the parties marriage?

Discussion:

The court held that, although the Mexican divorce was clearly not enforceable under California law, the husband was precluded from relying upon it to obtain the annulment of his marriage. The husband was instrumental in the wife obtaining the divorce, and even paid for the action. Having had full knowledge of the circumstances of the divorce she obtained, and having married her following the divorce, he was judicially estopped from taking the opposite opinion in seeking an annulment. Having relied upon the

Mexican divorce proceedings

to marry her, he could not now use that divorce proceeding against her. Accordingly the court reversed the judgment for the husband which had been granted by the trial court, and remanded the case to the trial court with directions to retry only the issues made by the amended cross-complaint for divorce and the answer thereto.

Disclaimer:

These summaries are provided by the

SRIS Law Group

. They represent the firm s unofficial views of the Justices opinions. The original opinions should be consulted for their authoritative content.

Atchuthan Sriskandarajah is a Virginia lawyer and owner of the SRIS Law Group. The SRIS Law Group has offices in Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina &

California

. The firm handles criminal/traffic defense, family law, immigration & bankruptcy cases.

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