Legal Bibliography
Impediments to Marriage

    Daphne and Daryl duPhus have been married 17 years and have two children, both teenagers. Daphne recently discovered that Daryl had been carrying on an affair when his girlfriend called to report that she was pregnant, asking Daphne to give Daryl a divorce so he would be free to marry her.

    Daphne married Daryl in 1985. Prior to the marriage, Daphne and Daryl lived together for a period of approximately 10 months while Daphne obtained a "no fault" divorce from her first husband. Daryl was fully aware of Daphne's first marriage; in fact, he was the corroborating witness, testifying at her divorce hearing that she had lived separate and apart from her first husband for more than a year.

    At the close of the divorce hearing, held Thursday, June 6, 1986, Judge Campbell Williams announced in open court that he was granting Daphne's request for a divorce on no-fault grounds. (Her attorney had not prepared a decree for Judge Williams to sign, but informed the Court that he would submit one within the week.) Based on Judge Williams' pronouncement, Daphne believe that she was divorced. She and Daryl went down to the second level of the Richland County Courthouse and obtained a marriage license. They were married, following the 24-hour waiting period, in their church at Hopkins, on Sunday, June 9, 1986.

    Judge Williams signed the decree on June 14, 1986 and it was filed with the records of the Family Court later that day.

    When we recently filed an action on Daphne's behalf, seeking a divorce on grounds of adultery, a division of marital property (all of which is titled in Husband's name), custody, child support and alimony, Daryl answered, claiming that he and Daphne are not married because she was married to someone else when the wedding was performed in 1985. If Daphne was never validly married to Daryl, she is not entitled to alimony and there is no "marital property" to divide.

    During the course of the duPhus' purported marriage, they filed joint tax returns, used the same surname, obtained family health insurance coverage through Daryl's employer, and generally represented themselves as married. Daphne says it never even occurred to her that she might not be validly married until she read Daryl's answer to her complaint for divorce.

    Daryl is so confident in his legal position that he recently married his girlfriend.

    Please research this issue and write a memo.