Ridiculous Legal Question

[yoda291]

Hi all,

Kind of an oddball question here, but is there any legal statute anyone can think of that essentially indicates the following?

- Married couple going on 28yrs have an argument and 1 of them commits adultery.
- The adulterer runs away with mistress and disappears for 3 mos.
- The remaining member of the marriage has never expressed an intent to divorce.
- The married couple is now divorced and the adulterer is now legally able to marry his mistress.

Someone at work tried to fob this off as an obscure law(possibly local to NY/NJ area), but this sounded wildly implausible as this sounds like a pretty scott free way of avoiding alimony....Internet searching unsurprisingly, makes no mention of this.

 

[imported_LoKe]

State?

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: LoKe
State?

NJ

 

[OdiN]

There's no law that states anything like that....

All of those things can happen. A married couple can have an argument. One of them can commit adultery, then run away for 3 months. A divorce can occur. Either of them can marry whoever they want. They're divorced.

What law? Those are just circumstances and actions. There's no legal anything in what you said, except perhaps a divorce and a marriage.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Yep, adultery is grounds for divorce, I don't think the 3 months factors in in helping them avoid alimony (might decide if alimony is owed if the adultery negatively affected the children).

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: OdiN
There's no law that states anything like that....

All of those things can happen. A married couple can have an argument. One of them can commit adultery, then run away for 3 months. A divorce can occur. Either of them can marry whoever they want. They're divorced.

What law? Those are just circumstances and actions. There's no legal anything in what you said, except perhaps a divorce and a marriage.

Well, the part I don't see happening is that, having disappeared for 3mos = automatic divorce? No paperwork or filing or divorce court? Just BAMF, marriage gone. This seems farfetched to me.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: yoda291
Well, the part I don't see happening is that, having disappeared for 3mos = automatic divorce? No paperwork or filing or divorce court? Just BAMF, marriage gone. This seems farfetched to me.

That doesn't happen. Someone filed for it.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: yoda291

Originally posted by: OdiN
There's no law that states anything like that....

All of those things can happen. A married couple can have an argument. One of them can commit adultery, then run away for 3 months. A divorce can occur. Either of them can marry whoever they want. They're divorced.

What law? Those are just circumstances and actions. There's no legal anything in what you said, except perhaps a divorce and a marriage.

Well, the part I don't see happening is that, having disappeared for 3mos = automatic divorce? No paperwork or filing or divorce court? Just BAMF, marriage gone. This seems farfetched to me.

You never said they didn't get an actual official divorce.

I believe there may be something that has some sort of time on it....but the other person would be able to file paperwork I imagine. And after that, I don't know why it wasn't done immediately. But there's also common-law marriages and crap too.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: OdiN
I believe there may be something that has some sort of time on it....but the other person would be able to file paperwork I imagine. And after that, I don't know why it wasn't done immediately. But there's also common-law marriages and crap too.

Adultery is grounds for immediate divorce, if you can prove it. Otherwise you have to be living apart for 18 months or more. Nothing about 3 months in NJ divorce law.

 

[KK]

but there would have to be some sort of paperwork. I mean how could the state know how long you've been apart, or anything without one of the parties doing something.

 

[Captante]

No such thing as an "automatic" divorce after 3 months.

 

[DaveSimmons]

"I am making a citizens divorce. By the powers vested in me, I hereby declare our marriage null and void! E pluribus unum!"

--- Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: OdiN
I believe there may be something that has some sort of time on it....but the other person would be able to file paperwork I imagine. And after that, I don't know why it wasn't done immediately. But there's also common-law marriages and crap too.

Adultery is grounds for immediate divorce, if you can prove it. Otherwise you have to be living apart for 18 months or more. Nothing about 3 months in NJ divorce law.

Thanks, Matlock.