Sweeping the Conflicts Away
Roberta McReynolds writes: Some days pass without that beckoning call, but I stare off into space waiting for it anyway while still recovering from the latest traumatic event. Will I ever find pleasure in a project that has somehow become tangled in the emotions of a separate, turbulent situation?
Read More...Joanna Grossman at Writ, Annulments Based on Fraud: What is the "Essence" of Marriage?
The following is edited from Johanna Grossman's two parts at FindLaw's Writ (see below). Ms. Grossman is a professor and the John DeWitt Gregory Research Scholar at Hofstra Law School.
"Larry and Joy Farr were married for thirty years — the first time around. Then, in 2007, three years after getting a divorce, they remarried. But this time, their marriage only lasted three years, at which point he filed for divorce and she cross-filed for an annulment — a declaration that their second marriage was invalid from the get-go."
"According to Joy, she only agreed to remarry Larry based on his representation that he had a terminal illness; she didn't want him to die alone. But he survived, and she cried foul. The second marriage, she alleged, had been based on fraud — a false representation that he would soon be dead."
"Is this type of misrepresentation, if proven, grounds for annulment? A Colorado appellate court said yes, in Farr v. Farr. In the first part of this two-part series, I will discuss the traditional doctrine of annulments based on fraud and the ways in which courts kept a tight leash on such claims. In Part Two, I will discuss the shift towards a more lenient definition of fraud that is exemplified by the ruling in Farr, an opinion I will analyze in detail."
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Annulments Based on Fraud: The Traditional Approach
Read More...Too Much Information? The Rhetoric of Women Wronged: When Political Spouses Tell Their Stories
Two Studies: Marital Hostility and Change in Spouses’ Depressive Symptoms; Caring for An Ex
"In the United States, nearly 10 percent of the population suffers from a depressive disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. While the causes of depression vary, a new study at the University of Missouri reveals that marital hostility is a contributing factor. MU researcher, Christine Proulx, found that husbands’ hostile and anti-social behaviors increased their wives’ symptoms of depression over time."
" 'In the study, husbands’ marital hostility was significantly related to increases in wives’ symptoms of depression,' said Proulx, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. 'The more hostile and anti-social behavior exhibited by husbands, the more depressed their wives were after three years. These findings suggest that husbands’ treatment of their wives significantly impacts their psychological well-being and that hostile behavior has a lasting effect on couples that continues throughout their marriages.' "
"The researchers found no significant relationship between wives’ hostile behavior and husbands’ depression, unless significant life events, such as a death in the family or a job loss, were present. Additionally, warm, positive behavior from husbands lessened the negative impact of their hostile behavior."
"Anti-social behaviors are those that are self-centered, defiant or show a lack of constraint; hostile behaviors are those that are angry, critical or rejecting. To measure hostile and anti-social behaviors, the researchers watched and coded twenty-minute videos of couples interacting in their homes. Symptoms of depression were self-reported by those in the study."
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