Domestic Relations: Cases and Materials

✍ Scribed by Walter Wadlington, Raymond C. O'Brien, & Robin F. Wilson

• Publisher: Foundation Press
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 1108
• Edition: Ninth
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The ninth edition of this casebook continues a series of domestic relations casebooks originating with Professors Albert C. Jacobs and Julius Goebel, Jr. more than three-quarters of a century ago. To many readers, the topics discussed in the earliest editions bear no resemblance to domestic relations today, the modern emphasis on national and international application, assisted reproductive technology, premarital and nonmarital contracting, and no-fault divorce. A consistent feature throughout the multiple editions of this casebook is the careful attention to court decisions, which highlight the law and the domestic relations of the persons involved.
Any casebook attempts to build upon past understandings and indicates where the future lies; we seek to do this by providing engaging and instructive judicial opinions, concise statutory formulations, and references to legal periodicals, state surveys, and relevant judicial Problems. Our consistent link with past editions is our retention of the words “Domestic Relations” rather than family law. We believe that the former offers a comprehensive title in which the developments in interpersonal relationships will continue to find reconstruction, building upon the past and continuing through the twenty-first century.
Like the eighth edition, the ninth edition is shorter than previously. Professors familiar with the book will notice that we have edited some more prolonged cases and deleted materials that no longer seem relevant in today’s society. These less-discussed topics include annulment, state resistance to assisted reproductive technology, long-term alimony, and lengthy exploration of fault grounds for divorce. In their place, we have added material on nonmarital entitlements, paternity and surrogacy, spousal support, and modern approaches to child custody.
To supplement the casebook, we rely upon two additional books by the same coauthors as the casebook, which may be purchased separately: FAMILY LAW IN PERSPECTIVE (5th ed. 2021) and STATUTORY AND DOCUMENTARY SUPPLEMENT: SELECTED UNIFORM LAWS, MODEL LEGISLATION, FEDERAL STATUTES, STATE STATUTES, AND INTERNATIONAL TREATIES (2021). Among the evolving features of the ninth edition are references to Free Exercise accommodation, the elimination of spousal privilege, developments about the rights of same-sex couples to marry and adopt, rehabilitative spousal support, expanding use of assisted reproductive technology, school vouchers, homeschooling, joint physical custody, relocation of custodial parents, and state and third-party intervention in the parent-child relationship.
Several themes recognizable in previous editions will appear again. First, this casebook is meant to provide law school and university professors with cases pertinent to law practice in the United States. The legal casebook method of teaching requires factual scenarios that combine constitutional, common law, federal and state statutes, and human personalities in such a way as to allow the professor the opportunity to springboard to other relevant rules and principles; we hope that current events and legal developments may be included too. We have tried to retain and to choose cases that condense decades of decisions and refinements into a few pages of instructive history. We think the cases themselves offer Problems to be solved by students and teachers and we like the fact that the highest court or the legislative process offers solutions, even though these may not be permanent. But we also offer, throughout each of the chapters, Problems based on actual cases, illustrating the current application of the law discussed in the material.
A second casebook theme recognizes the continuing interaction between federal and state law. Federal law is increasingly involved in the enforcement of spousal and child support obligations, welfare benefits, retirement benefits, interstate and international custody disputes, Native American child placement, individual liberties, marriage, and termination of parental rights. There are specific references to federal involvement in these issues in the material covered. For instance, federal welfare legislation mandates that states enact statutes and policies or suffer the loss of federal benefits; federal law defines reasonable services to be offered to parents prior to termination of parental rights; federal rulings define marriage and criminalize interstate domestic violence; and federal efforts to prohibit child trafficking proliferate at the national and international levels. Nonetheless, states retain their traditional role, laboratories for change in the area of domestic relations. We witness this in areas such as domestic violence, infant safe haven laws, emerging forms of assisted reproductive rights and responsibilities, child custody arrangements, adequate levels of child care, and equitable remedies available to nonmarital couples.
The authors wish to extend our sincere appreciation to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws for their permission to reprint the text of selected Uniform Laws, as well as the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, and the United Nations. We would also like to thank Emmett J. Whelan for his editorial expertise, conscientiousness and good humor in the production of this casebook.
Finally, we share with you the news of the passing of Walter Wadlington, the founding author of this casebook and its supplements. He was a titan in this field of law, an empathetic teacher, empowering mentor, and sincere friend. He was and always will be for those who knew him. The ninth edition of this casebook is dedicated to him. We miss him.

✦ Table of Contents

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION .......................................................................V
NOTE ON EDITING ............................................................................................ VII
SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................................................ IX
TABLE OF CASES............................................................................................ XXIX
Chapter I. Changing Concepts of Marriage and Family ......................1
A. Form and Function Relationships ............................................................ 1
B. The Elements of Nonmarital Contracting ................................................ 5
C. Jurisdictional Basis .................................................................................25
D. Constitutional Parameters of Family Law.............................................32
Chapter II. Getting Married ......................................................................99
A. Introduction..............................................................................................99
B. Courtship and the Marriage Promise ...................................................101
C. Access to Status of Marriage.................................................................102
D. Annulment and Its Effects ....................................................................130
E. Putative Marriage..................................................................................134
F. Determining Legal Eligibility ...............................................................141
Chapter III. Spouses: Changing Roles, Rights, and Duties .............161
A. Spouses Evolving ...................................................................................161
B. Names in the Family .............................................................................166
C. Support During Marriage......................................................................181
D. Testimonial Privilege, Torts, and Crimes Between Spouses ..............188
E. Third Party Interference with the Relationship ..................................223
Chapter IV. Matrimonial Breakdown: Grounds and Jurisdiction
for Dissolution.....................................................................................229
A. The Perspective of History ....................................................................229
B. Grounds and Defenses ...........................................................................231
C. The Jurisdictional Jumble.....................................................................255
D. Special Problems of Service of Process .................................................280
E. Federalism, Mediation, and Malpractice..............................................290
Chapter V. Marital Breakdown: Resolving the Financial
Concerns ...............................................................................................297
A. Introduction............................................................................................297
B. Community Property States..................................................................302
C. Common Law States ..............................................................................314
D. Temporary Spousal Support..................................................................321
E. Permanent Spousal Support .................................................................333
F. Modification of Support .........................................................................338
G. Termination of Support .........................................................................345
H. Dividing Property upon Divorce............................................................351
I. Support for Children..............................................................................396
J. Premarital and Marital Contracting ....................................................435
K. Agreements During Marriage ............................................................... 461
L. Separation Agreements ......................................................................... 469
M. Taxation at Divorce ............................................................................... 477
N. Discharge in Bankruptcy.......................................................................479
O. Support Enforcement: Criminal or Civil ..............................................481
Chapter VI. Parent and Child: Legal and Biological Relationships.......................................................................................491
A. Establishing Legal Parentage ............................................................... 491
B. Protection of Putative Fathers .............................................................. 503
C. Protection of Children............................................................................ 524
D. Children Born by Assisted Reproductive Technology .........................542
Chapter VII. Raising Children: Competing Interests .......................599
A. Parental Prerogatives............................................................................599
B. Children Beyond Parental Control ....................................................... 626
C. Abuse, Neglect, Surrender, and Abandonment ....................................640
D. Circumstances Giving Rise to Child Abuse..........................................654
E. Medical Decision Making for and by Children.....................................701
F. Tort Actions Between Parent and Child ..............................................772
G. Emancipation of Child from Parental Authority .................................776
Chapter VIII. Custody of a Child ...........................................................779
A. Parent Versus Parent ............................................................................ 779
B. Parent Versus Third Party....................................................................831
C. Parent Versus State: Foster Care Placement ......................................872
D. Litigating Child Custody.......................................................................874
E. Abduction of Children ............................................................................ 903
Chapter IX. Parental Rights: Termination and Adoption................923
A. Severing Parental Rights Involuntarily ............................................... 923
B. Adoption of Minors.................................................................................977
C. Adoption of Adults ............................................................................... 1052
INDEX ............................................................................................................1059