Transcript Legal Considerations in Marriage and Divorce

Legal Considerations in
Marriage and Divorce
Chapter 18
Statistics**
**from the US Census Bureau
Data for U.S. in 2001
• Number of marriages
– 2,327,000
• Marriage rate
– 8.4 per 1,000
• Divorce rate
– 4.0 per 1,000
Data for OH in 2002
• Number of Marriages
– 80,373
• Number of Divorces
– 45,955
• Divorce Rate
– 57%
More Statistics
• 43% of first marriages end in separation
or divorce within 15 years
• The older the bride is, the longer the
marriage will last
Ratio of Marriages to Divorces 2:1
Marriages took a sharp drop in
1998
Marital status for females 15 and
over (1950-2004)
Shows that the population of unmarried women will soon surpass the
number of married women.
The number of unmarried couple
households (live-ins) is increasing
Where are the children living due to
divorce?
Children living with only one parent has
increased from 9% in 1960 to 29% in 2004.
Of those 83% of the children live with the
mother.
Legal Aspects for Marriage
18-1
Goals
• Discuss how the law affects premarital and
marital relationships
• Explain the uses of prenuptial agreements
• Name the rights and duties of husbands and
wives
DEBATE
Ben, 16, has been dating Betsy for several months when he told
his parents about the relationship. Ben’s father has been in
business with Betsy’s dad and the partnership ended poorly.
When his father heard the news, he told Ben to stop seeing
Betsy. Ben refused, and his father grounded him. When Ben
continued to see Betsy, his father took away the car Ben bought
with his own money, stopped paying Ben’s tuition, cut off his
allowance, and spent the funds saved for Ben’s college. He
even threatened to spank Ben. Ultimately, with his mother’s
backing, Ben brought suit against his father for “improper
parenting.” Ben’s father’s attorney quickly filed a motion to
dismiss the suit. The motion stated that “improper parenting”
was not a legitimate cause of action and that the father had acted
within his powers as a parent under the law. The lower court
dismissed the suit, and Ben appealed to the state court of
appeals.
DEBATE
• Make a persuasive argument that emphasized the legal
reasons supporting Ben’s suit
– Children are maturing faster (more rights and responsibilities) in
today’s society
– Parents should not be able to create an environment and
prospective future for their offspring and then, without good
cause, destroy their child’s present and future
• Make a persuasive argument that emphasized the legal
reasons supporting his father’s actions
– The father acted within his current rights as a parent under our
laws even to the point of threatening (or carrying out some minor
form of corporeal punishment)
– Everything the child earns is basically the parents’ until the child
is emancipated or enters his or her majority
– He did what our society expects of him and empowers him to do
What’s Your Verdict?
• Jim and Mary are both 16 years old.
While dating they have intimate relations,
and Mary becomes pregnant.
• Will the law compel them to marry?
– Do you think Jim and Mary should get
married?
– What obligation, if any, does Jim have toward
Mary?
Premarital Relationships
• Marriage
– A legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife
• Cohabitate
– A man and woman who live together outside of marriage
• Illegal in most states until the late 1970’s
• Still illegal in some states – seldom enforced
• Laws state a minimum age for marriage without
parental permission (typically 18)
• No law specifies a minimum age for dating
Premarital Relationships
• No law restricts the choice of marital partners
(one exception)
– Close relatives may not marry
• Minor child can be told not to date or not to see
a specific person
– Can only be enforced with “reasonable force”
– Parental use of excessive force may result in
charges of child abuse
US Marriage Laws
Premarital Relationships
• If pregnancy results and the responsible male
can be identified, he will be required to pay
the female’s medical bills and to contribute to
the child’s support until the child is 18
– True even if the father is a minor
• No law exists to force the parents of an
illegitimate child to marry
What’s Your Verdict?
• Grady and Cheryl are engaged to be married.
Grady’s parents strongly disapprove of the upcoming marriage. They finally convince Grady
to break the engagement.
• Can Cheryl bring a successful lawsuit against
Grady’s parents for interfering with her contract
to marry Grady?
– If you were Cheryl, would you still want to marry
Grady?
The Marital Contract
• If one party in a heterosexual relationship proposes
marriage and the other accepts, a binding contract
results
• If later both mutually agree to end their engagement, the
contract is annulled
– The law considers their agreement void and to never have
existed
• Suits were notorious because juries set high figures to
compensate the jilted party (usually the woman)
– Actual damages, humiliation, and hurt feelings
• Most states have banned breach-of-promise suits
• Other states have placed a cap on the amount of
damages
The Marital Contract
• What if a third party interferes with the engagement?
– Few states allow damage suits against intruders
– Parents can try to prevent their son or daughter from
marrying (cannot bring suit)
• Gifts create legal problems
– Ring (given in expectation of marriage) is usually ordered to
be returned
• The woman may get to keep in the man called off the
engagement
– Gifts other than those given in expectation of marriage can be
kept by the recipient
What’s Your Verdict?
• Zed lived with Tamra for about two years.
Although they never applied for a marriage
license, they told everyone that they were
married. Recently, they split up, and now
Tamra is about to marry another man.
However, Zed claims that she cannot enter
another marriage because she is his
common-law wife.
• Is he correct?
How Do You Get Married?
• State Marriage Requirements
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Each state has its own requirements
Begin process by appearing before the city
Must apply for and pay a fee for a marriage license
With parental consent, most states allow minors to marry
Some states require a blood test before the license is issued
Once licensed is issued, any authorized religious of civil officials
can perform the ceremony
• Court clerks, mayors, judges, rabbis, ministers, priests, sea captains
– An attempt has been made to standardize state laws for
marriage and divorce (The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act)
• Adopted by 8 states (Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Minnesota,
Colorado, Montana, Arizona, and Washington)
How Do You Get Married?
• Common-Law Marriage
– Occur when a single woman and a single man lived
together, share common property, and hold
themselves out as husband and wife over a
prolonged period of time (usually 10 years or longer)
• Roots are in the American Frontier
– Absence of suitable authorities, many pioneers could
not follow the legal methods for marriage
• About ¼ of our states allow common law
marriages (MT, ID, UT, CO, KS, OK, TX, IA, PA,
RI, DC, SC, GA, AL)
– All states must recognize common law if such a union
is legal in the state in which it occurred
What’s Your Verdict?
• Your friend Bill’s mother died three years
ago. Now his father plans to remarry. Bill
is concerned that his father’s fiancée will
have a claim against the family home and
other property.
• Is there anything Bill can do to prevent
such a claim?
Duties and Rights of Wives and
Husbands
• The laws sees marriage as a contract for
life and for the benefit of each other
• The practical and legally recognized
purposes for marriage:
– Procreation
– Raising children
– Sexual needs
– Economic needs
– Companionship needs
Duties and Rights of Wives and
Husbands
• Marital Consortium
– Mutual obligations of wife and husband undertaken to
fulfill the purposes of their union
• If either spouse suffers an injury that prevents fulfillment of
these marital duties, the other can sue the party who caused
the harm for damages for “loss of consortium”
• The most important duty of both spouses is to
provide for the support, nurture, welfare, and
education of their children
Duties and Rights of Wives and
Husbands
• Parental Rights and Duties
– Obligated by state law to support their children until they
reach adulthood
• Exception – if a minor child takes legal measures to become
“emancipated”
– Both parents in a married couple have custody rights to their
children
• Equal voice in decisions
• Adoption
– Legal process that creates a parent-child relationship
• Same rights as they would to a child born of their union
• Governed by state law and must be approved by the courts
Duties and Rights of Wives and
Husbands
• Property Rights and Duties
– Property acquired during the marriage may be kept in the
name of the husband, wife, or both
• Prenuptial Agreement
– Legal contract resolving property and other claims that
might result from marriage
• At times, spouses bring property into the marriage and want to
keep it in their own names
• The partner-to-be gives up any future claim
• Useful when entering into a second or subsequent marriage
Assignment
• Page 284 #1-15