What is Divorce? This is an act
or instance of legally dissolving a marriage.
To obtain a divorce one must be
able to prove to the court at least one of the grounds allowed for divorce in order
for it to stand, the grounds for bringing divorce in Houston Texas are seven in
number which falls under two different categories which are Fault based Divorce
and No-Fault Divorce.
The No-Fault Grounds for divorce
are in supportability of the marriage due to discord or conflict with no reasonable expectation of reconciliation, living
apart for at least three years, or if a spouse has been confined to a mental
hospital for at least three years.
Fault grounds for divorce include
adultery by one spouse, felony conviction and abandonment .If a spouse alleges
fault ground divorce he or she has the burden of proving that the opposing
party is at fault for the breakup of the marriage.
Why allege fault? This helps the
spouse to gain a greater share of the community estate, the court considers the
fault of one spouse as a factor in determining the amount , duration and manner
of any spousal maintenance payment that are awarded.
Adultery in this sense involves a
married person engaging in sexual intercourse with another person who isn’t his
spouse .A spouse can prove adultery by direct or circumstantial evidence
.However a clear and positive prove must exist. A mere suggestion or innuendo that
adultery occurred is insufficient to prove that adultery did in fact occur.
Adultery is not limited to acts
committed before parties separated; many often think that once they separate from
their spouse, they are free to engage in sexual relationship with any other
person other than their spouse without any consequence.
In RE: MARRIAGE OF C.A.S the
court awarded the wife 81% of the community estate holding that her husband had
committed adultery by having sexual intercourse with a woman not his
spouse,even though he was separated from his wife at the time of the sexual
relationship.
A court may also grant a divorce
on the fault ground of cruel treatment, for a court to consider treatment the
petitioner must show the other spouses’ treatment toward him or she was of such
a nature that it renders further living together insupportable. In Ayala V.
Ayala 2011 in Houston the court of Appeal defines incapable of being borne, unendurable
or intolerable. Mere trivial matters do not justify the granting of divorce for
cruel treatment. In Kemp V. Kemp 2013 the court found that the husbands’ anger
issues, road rage, refusal to leave his wife’s residence, burning of her
property and other conducts that exacerbated his wife’s heart condition to rose
to the level of cruel treatment required by family code.
Abandonment is also a major
ground for divorce, where one spouse has abandoned the other for at least a
minimum of one year.
If you are reading this blog for
the first time Kindly, read our topic Divorce Nigeria context in our previous
post.
Thank you.
Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons)BL
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