A New York Court recently granted the state’s first contested no-fault divorce. While New York’s no-fault divorce law is only one year old, California enacted no-fault divorce over 40 years ago, in 1970.

Wife filed for divorce under New York’s year old no-fault divorce law on the grounds that her marriage was “irretrievably broken.” Wife testified that she has not had marital relations with her Husband for over five years, they slept in separate bedrooms and never ate meals together. Although she is in poor health, she testified that her Husband had not taken her to her doctor’s appointments in the last five years or even asked about her health for the past ten years. She further testified that she had “no hope for the marriage … and that her only wish is for a divorce so that she can have one-half of her marital assets and leave them to her four children before her demise.”
Husband contested the divorce because he wanted to remain married saying he “worked hard to acquire everything the parties had” and didn’t want to lose it in a divorce.

The Court applied the new no-fault law and granted Wife’s request for a divorce stating, “[I]t is this Court’s determination that the parties’ relationship has so deteriorated irretrievably …the plaintiff is entitled to a judgment of absolute divorce,”

In California, a no-fault divorce allows for a divorce without requiring either party to present evidence of wrong doing or breach of the marital contract. The idea behind a no-fault divorce was that removing the fault requirement would also remove some of the bad blood from the divorce process, and allow couples who wanted to break up to do so without having to make false allegations to justify the divorce to the court. No longer would couples, or even just one party, who wanted a divorce have to choose between lying under oath in open court or remain married.

Prior to no-fault divorce in California, a divorce could be obtained only through a showing of fault. This requirement meant that one spouse had to plead that the other had committed adultery, abandoned them, was cruel, or some other culpable acts. To get a divorce, parties often lied, colluded and committed fraud upon the court in order to get around the statutory limitations of the fault based requirement. Prior to the enactment of no-fault divorce, many prominent attorneys and judges in California believed that the “legal fictions” used by parties to satisfy the requirements for divorce made oaths meaningless and threatened the integrity of our legal system by encouraging perjury. Without committing perjury, many couple could not obtain a divorce, even if both parties wanted a divorce.

California’s no-fault divorce law provided a straightforward ground for ending a marriage – irreconcilable differences. Not only did California’s no-fault divorce laws eliminate the fault requirements to obtain a divorce for spouses seeking a divorce by mutual consent, but also in cases where only one party to a marriage wanted a divorce.

No-fault divorce ushered in other changes to divorce laws. Under no-fault divorce, gender-based responsibilities such as the Husband always being responsible for child support while the Wife was always responsible for custody gave way to gender-neutral responsibilities such as both parties being eligible for custody and responsible for child support.

As an interesting side-note, California’s no-fault divorce policy even invalided a Marital Agreement that was intended, after Husband had an affair, to “preserve, protect and assure the longevity and integrity of an amicable and beneficial marital relationship between them.” In the Diosdado case, rather than divorcing, the parties agreed to be subjected to a legal obligation of emotional and sexual fidelity to the other. If either party volitionally engaged in certain acts with any person outside of the marital relationship, that party would be in breach of the Marital Agreement, which provided for liquidated damages should the obligation of sexual fidelity be breached. Damages included that the party in breach would be: (1) required to vacate the family residence, (2) solely responsible for all attorney fees and court costs, and (3) pay $50,000 over and above any settlement or support obligations. Of course, Husband had another affair and Wife sued for breach of contract, seeking to enforce the liquidated damages clause of Marital Agreement. However, the Trial Court granted Husband’s judgment on pleadings, because the Marital Agreement was contrary to the public policy underlying California’s no-fault divorce laws. Wife appealed, but the Court of Appeal affirmed stating, “Here, where the agreement attempts to impose a penalty on one of the parties as a result of that party’s ‘fault’ during the marriage, it is contrary to the public policy underlying the no-fault provisions for dissolution of marriage. [See Family Code §2310, Family Code §2335.] For that reason, the agreement is unenforceable.”

Contact us if you are considering a divorce from your spouse. San Diego Family Law Attorney Nancy J. Bickford is the only board-certified divorce lawyer in San Diego who also holds an MBA and a CPA. Don’t settle for less when determining your rights . Call 858-793-8884 in Del Mar, Carmel Valley, North County or San Diego.