Showing posts with label Jewish divorce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewish divorce. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Interference With Contractual Relationship Created by Jewish Marriage Contract Is Not Actionable

In S.E. v. Edelstein, (OH App., March 25, 2024), an Ohio state appellate court affirmed the dismissal of a suit for intentional interference with a contractual relationship brought by an Orthodox Jewish wife (Kimberly) against her father-in-law (Max) who disapproved of her marriage to his son (Elliott). The court held that the suit essentially sought damages for alienation of affections and breach of promise to marry which were barred as causes of action by Ohio Revised Code 2305.29. The court said in part:

In the complaint, it was alleged that Max had intentionally interfered with the ketubah, the supposed "contract" at issue in this case, by engaging in a continuous "campaign to undermine" Kimberly and Eliott's contractual relationship (i.e., their marriage) for nearly 20 years.  The complaint alleged that this included Max being "emotionally abusive" towards Kimberly, as well as Max making "negative and derogatory statements" about Kimberly.  This, according to the complaint, included Max criticizing Kimberly's "status as a convert to Judaism" and by frequently stating that Kimberly's and Eliott's children "were not Jewish."  The complaint also alleged that Max, "with the intent to destroy the contractual relationship between" Kimberly and Eliott, routinely disparaged Kimberly to "persuade" Eliott to "terminate his contractual relationship with [her]."...

[T]he complaint raises amatory claims of a breach of a promise to marry and alienation of affections against Max couched in terms of an intentional interference with a contractual relationship ..., loss of consortium... , loss of parental consortium ..., intentional infliction of emotional distress ...,, and malice.....  As stated previously, pursuant to R.C. 2305.29, neither Max, nor any other person, could be held liable in civil damages.... for any breach of a promise to marry or alienation of affection.  This holds true despite those claims being pled within the complaint in other, generally more suitable terms....   

Just as a rose is a rose by any other name, a non-actionable claim does not become actionable simply by masquerading as one that is....

Monday, March 25, 2024

Religious Marriage Without Marriage License and Later Annulled by Religious Court Is Still Recognized By New York

 In T.I. v. R.I., (NY Sup Ct Kings Cty, March 20, 2024), a New York state trial court held that the state would recognize a couple's marriage that was performed in a Jewish religious ceremony even though the couple did not obtain a civil marriage license and the marriage was annulled eight years later by a religious tribunal.  In a long-running dispute between the parties, there had been a prior divorce action which the parties discontinued and there had been protection orders in favor of the wife against the husband issued by the Family Court and Criminal Court. Now the husband, claiming that no marriage between them existed any longer, sought to have the wife's divorce action dismissed so that the court could not issue orders for him to pay child support, spousal maintenance or equitable distribution of property. According to the court:

The husband contends that the rabbinical court invalidated the parties' religious marriage on two Jewish religious concepts: 1) based upon "concealment" because the wife did not disclose her alleged mental health history to him prior to the religious solemnization ceremony; and 2) because the person who conducted the solemnization ceremony was not, although unknown to the parties, authorized to do so by at least some portion of the religious community....

Nothing related to the wife's request for a civil divorce requires this Court to address or assess the religious issues that the husband brought before the rabbinical court or that may have been part of the rabbinical court's determination and, as such, the husband's theory that the issue of whether the wife can seek a divorce of any marriage recognized by the State of New York is not prohibited by the First Amendment. Here, the determination of whether a marriage recognized by the State of New York exists between the parties separate and apart from any religious marriage rests not upon religious doctrine but upon neutral principles of law.

Any religious determinations and any ramification of religious doctrine made by the rabbinical court as to the parties' religious marriage are separate and apart from the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over whether, based on neutral principles of law, there exists here a marriage recognized by the State between the parties....

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Court Enforces Arbitration Award Requiring Husband to Furnish Jewish Bill of Divorce

In S.I. v. M.I., (NJ App., March 22, 2024), a New Jersey state appellate court held that a husband was required to comply with an arbitration agreement he had signed that required him to accept Rabbi David Twersky's decision on his obligation to give his wife a get (Jewish bill of divorce). The rabbi ordered giving of a get, but the husband refused to comply. The trial court declined to confirm the arbitration award because it concluded that it could not order a party to carry out a religious act.  The court of appeals reversed, saying in part:

Here, confirmation of the award can be granted under neutral principles of law and without interpretation of religious doctrine.  We therefore conclude the Establishment Clause is not violated because the parties' arbitration agreement regarding a get serves the "purpose of enforcing the parties' contractual obligations" and "encouraging divorce litigants to resolve disputes by negotiating and entering" into marital agreements....

Additionally, enforcement does not infringe on the Free Exercise Clause as the parties voluntarily entered into the MOU arbitration provision and agreement....

Confirmation of the award strictly required a determination of defendant's contractual obligation.

Friday, September 08, 2023

Video Pressing Estranged Husband to Give Wife a Get Is Protected Speech

In S.B.B. v. L.B.B., (NJ App., Sept. 6, 2023), a New Jersey appellate court vacated a Final Restraining Order (FRO) issued by a trial court under the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act. The court said in part:

The FRO was based on the predicate act of harassment. The communication underlying the trial judge's finding of harassment was defendant's creation and dissemination of a video accusing her estranged husband of improperly withholding a get, a Jewish bill of divorce, and asking community members to "press" her husband to deliver the get. Because defendant's communication constituted constitutionally protected free speech, we reverse.

In reaching that conclusion, the appellate court said in part:

[The trial court] judge's finding that the Jewish community was prone to violence against get refusers—and the implicit holding that defendant was aware of and intentionally availed herself of such violent tendencies—is not supported by the record. The video was intended to get a get. The video did not threaten or menace plaintiff, and nothing in the record suggests that plaintiff's safety or security was put at risk by the video.... Without credible evidence that the video incited or produced imminent lawless action or was likely to do so, defendant's speech does not fall within the narrow category of incitement exempted from First Amendment protection.

Volokh Conspiracy has more on the decision.

Wednesday, September 06, 2023

CT Supreme Court Upholds Refusal to Enforce Ketubah in Divorce Action

In Tilsen v. Benson, (CT Sup. Ct., Sept. 5, 2023), the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld a trial court's refusal to enforce the provisions of the parties' ketubah (Jewish marriage document) in setting alimony in a marital dissolution action. The husband, a rabbi, sought enforcement of the ketubah as a prenuptial agreement.  The ketubah provided that any divorce would be "according to Torah law."  Husband contended that meant a 50/50 division of property and no obligation to pay alimony, but conflicting interpretations of Jewish law were presented to the trial court.  The Supreme Court said in part:

... [W]e conclude that the plaintiff’s desired relief violates the establishment clause under the neutral principles of law doctrine. Most significant, the parties’ ketubah is facially silent as to each spouse’s support obligations in the event of dissolution of the marriage, thus leaving the court to determine those obligations from external sources as to Jewish law, namely, the parties’ expert witnesses, whose proffered opinions differed in this case, instantly alerting the court as to the establishment clause dilemma....

The court also rejected husband's argument that refusal to enforce the ketubah violated his free exercise rights by preventing him from divorcing according to Jewish law and denying him the generally available benefit of enforcing a prenuptial agreement only because of the agreement's religious nature.  The court said in part:

... [E]nforcement of this vaguely worded ketubah in the guise of protecting the plaintiff’s free exercise rights would have put the trial court on the horns of an establishment clause dilemma.

Second, the trial court did not deny the plaintiff access to the court or otherwise exact some kind of penalty in connection with his religious beliefs or practices; its decision simply meant that this dissolution action would be governed by generally applicable principles of Connecticut law as expressed in our alimony and equitable distribution statutes. Parties who desire specific tenets of their religious beliefs to govern the resolution of marital dissolution actions remain free to contract for that relief via a properly executed antenuptial, postnuptial, or separation agreement that is specifically worded to express those beliefs in a way that avoids establishment clause concerns under the neutral principles of law doctrine.

Monday, August 21, 2023

Enforcing Agreement To Cooperate With Jewish Religious Court Does Not Violate Establishment Clause

In Satz v. Satz, (NJ Super., Aug. 18, 2023), a New Jersey state appellate court upheld a trial court's order enforcing a marital settlement agreement (MSA) that the parties had entered in connection with their divorce proceedings. One provision in the agreement obligated the parties to comply with recommendations of a Jewish religious court (beis din) regarding the husband giving a get (Jewish bill of divorce) to the wife. According to the court:

On July 6, 2022, the beis din issued a fifteen-page ruling finding that defendant had not properly responded to summonses from rabbinical courts, that defendant is "obligated to divorce [plaintiff] forthright and immediately," and that his refusal to provide plaintiff a get "is a form of abuse." 

Affirming the trial court, the appellate court rejected the husband's Establishment Clause challenge, saying in part:

In this case ... the trial court was asked to enforce a civil contract, not a religious one. Nor did the trial court substantively review or affirm the beis din ruling. For purposes of this appeal, the beis din ruling is essentially a report confirming plaintiff's assertion that defendant failed to participate in the beis din proceeding in violation of his obligations under the MSA....

Defendant agreed in the MSA to abide by the beis din ruling, whatever that might be. In enforcing that agreement, the trial court in no way interpreted religious doctrine. The orders entered in this case scrupulously avoid entanglement with religion because the trial court applied well-established principles of civil contract law, not rabbinical law. The latter body of law remained solely within the province of the beis din and was not interpreted or applied by the Family Part judge, nor by us.

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Parties Cannot Be Forced to Arbitration Over Issues Surrounding Jewish Religious Divorce

In Bierig-Kiejdan v. Kiejdan, (NJ App., Feb. 16, 2023), a New Jersey state appeals court held that a family court judge could not order parties to a divorce to return to arbitration over issues surrounding which religious tribunal should oversee the issuance of a get-- Jewish divorce document-- when the parties' original agreement to arbitrate terms of the divorce had expired and they had not entered a new arbitration agreement covering issues that would arise later. JD Supra reports on the decision.

Friday, July 01, 2022

Court Enforcement Of Divorce Agreement Involving Acceptance of "Gett" Creates No Free Exercise Problem

In Mishler v. Mishler, (TX App., June 30, 2022), a Texas state appellate court held that there is no state or federal free exercise problem with a divorce decree, based on the parties prior agreement, that certain property would be delivered by the husband to the wife only upon the wife's acceptance of a "Gett" (Jewish divorce document that the wife must accept in order for the divorce to be valid under Jewish religious law).

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

California Court Says "Get" Denial Can Be Basis For Denying Husband Child Custody

The Forward last week reported on a February 7 decision by a California trial court which interpreted 2020 amendments to the state's Family Code (Senate Bill 1141) as allowing a family court to use a husband's refusal to give his wife a Jewish bill of divorce (a "get") as the basis for awarding the wife child custody. Senate Bill 1141 adds "coercive control", defined as "a pattern of behavior that in purpose or effect unreasonably interferes with a person’s free will and personal liberty," as the basis for ex parte orders.  That, in turn, creates a rebuttable presumption that awarding child custody to the person exerting coercive control is not in the best interests of the child. The court ruled that denial of a get amounted to coercive control. The full text of the court's decision does not appear to be available online.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

British Criminal Prosecution of Husband For Coercive Behavior Used To Obtain Jewish Divorce ("Get")

Britain's Serious Crime Act 2015, Sec. 76, criminalizes controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship. Jewish Chronicle yesterday reported that for the first time the law has been used in a private prosecution brought by a wife to obtain a get (Jewish divorce document) from her husband. According to the paper:
The husband was due to face a crown court trial in July and, if convicted, could have been jailed for up to five years.
But she has discontinued the case after her ex-husband finally gave the get last month.

Saturday, January 04, 2020

Court Refuses To Examine Parties' Need For Jewish Religious Divorce

In A.W. v. I.N., (Sup Ct Nassau Cty NY, Jan. 2, 2020), a New York state trial court held that the 1st Amendment precludes it from looking beyond a wife's sworn statement that she has, to the best of her knowledge, removed all barriers to the Husband's remarriage. NY Domestic Relations Law §253 requires such a statement from a plaintiff in a divorce action, and also provides that the court may not look into any religious or ecclesiastical issue.  In this case, the husband sought a stay in entering a final judgment of divorce because the wife refused to appear before an Orthodox Jewish religious court and accept a get (divorce document) from the husband.  According to an affidavit from a rabbi submitted by the husband, the husband is prevented from remarrying without the wife's acceptance of a get.  The wife contends, on the other hand;
the parties were not married religiously nor was there any religious ceremony. Therefore ... since there was no marriage according to Jewish Law, there is no religious divorce to be had. The Wife states that she refused the Husband's offers for a religious wedding ceremony because she wanted to avoid any religious divorce rituals. The Wife argues that in any event, the Husband is not a practicing Orthodox Jew.
The court said in part:
It would be a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution for the Court to order the Wife to participate in a religious ritual when she did not agree to do so.

Monday, September 02, 2019

British Appeals Court Upholds Order For Payments Until A "Get" Is Granted

In Moher v. Moher, (EWCA, Aug. 21, 2019), Britain's Court of Appeal upheld an order issued by a trial court in a divorce action requiring the husband to pay £22,000 per year until the husband granted the wife a get (Jewish divorce decree). British statutes specifically allow courts to order that the civil divorce decree will not become final until the marriage has been dissolved under Jewish law. The appeals court concluded that this does not prevent other types of orders directed at obtaining a get. The appeals court pointed out that "a Get obtained by compulsion is invalid in Jewish law," but concluded that:
the structure of the order in the present case does not compel the husband to act in a certain way. The court order provides only that until he grants a Get he has to pay periodical payments to the wife.
Family Law Week reports on the decision.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Indian Court Says Jewish Divorce By Mutual Consent Not Permitted

Times of India today reports on a Sept. 24 decision by the Family Court in Mumbai denying a Jewish couple's petition for divorce by mutual consent.  Unlike the situation of numerous other religious groups, there is no codified statutory law in India governing Jewish divorces.  The court held that the divorce is governed by uncodified Jewish personal law, and the parties have not shown that divorce by mutual consent is allowed under Jewish law.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Israel Expands Rabbinical Court Divorce Jurisdiction To Cover Recalcitrant Non-Israeli Husbands

On Monday, Israel's Knesset passed a new law giving Israeli Rabbinical Courts jurisdiction over divorces outside of Israel between non-Israelis where a Jewish husband has refused to give his estranged wife a Jewish bill of divorce (a get). The court however can act only when the husband subsequently is physically present in Israel. Jerusalem Post reports:
The legislation, which is a temporary three-year law, allows the Rabbinical Courts to hear a case involving a couple in which neither spouse is Israeli, on one of three conditions: if there is no rabbinical court where the couple lives to deal which can hear the case; the couple has not been in front of a rabbinical court for four months; or if a husband refuses to give a divorce after a rabbinical court in the Diaspora ruled that he must do so and made “reasonable efforts” to enforce its decision....
The rabbinical courts in Israel can impose sanctions on recalcitrant spouses to persuade them to divorce, such as revoking driving licenses, revoking passports, placing restrictions on their bank accounts, and even imprisoning them for extended periods of time.
But such sanctions are not at the disposal of rabbinical courts in the Diaspora since they are not state institutions....

Monday, March 19, 2018

Proposed Knesset Bill Would Extend Israeli Rabbinical Court Jurisdiction Extraterritorially

JTA reports on an interesting family law bill that passed the first of three readings in Israel's Knesset earlier this month.  Jewish religious law, enforced in personal status matters in Israel by the country's Rabbinical courts, requires that a husband give his wife a "get" (bill of divorce)  in order for a divorce to be valid.  Under current law, Israel's Rabbinical courts can impose penalties, including fines and jail, to pressure an Israeli husband to give  his wife a "get." The proposed new legislation would extend jurisdiction of Israeli Rabbinical courts extraterritorially to any Jewish man who is unjustly withholding a "get."  Israeli courts could then fine or imprison the husband if he travels to Israel.  According to Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis:
Today among Jews in Europe, everyone has relatives in Israel, or they’re thinking they might be moving there or forced to move there.  So this threat of a problem may make a lot of reluctant husbands free their wives.

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Israeli Rabbinical Judges Immune In State Court At Suggestion of State Department

In Ben-Hiam v. Edri, (NJ App., Feb. 5, 2018), a New Jersey appellate court held that a State Department "suggestion of immunity" in a suit against foreign officials is binding on New Jersey courts when the State Department has found that the foreign officials were acting within the scope of their authority for a foreign sovereign.  At issue is a suit brought in New Jersey against six Israeli rabbinical judges and an official of the Rabbinical Religious Courts Administration of Israel.  The suit grew out of a divorce and child custody dispute filed in Israeli courts by a couple who lived in New Jersey, but were Israeli citizens who were married in Israel and had traveled to Israel when the divorce action was filed.  While the Israeli litigation was pending, the husband (plaintiff in this case) returned to the United States.  Competing custody rulings for the couple's daughter were issued in the U.S. and Israel. The Israeli rabbinical court awarded custody of the daughter to the mother, but was unable to grant a divorce because the husband refused to grant the wife a get (Jewish divorce document).

What happened next is explained by the New Jersey court:
Israeli law gives rabbinical courts the authority to issue certain sanctions to pressure a nonconsenting spouse to give consent to a get. Accordingly, to compel plaintiff to consent to the get, the rabbinical court issued a series of escalating sanctions against plaintiff. Ultimately, the rabbinical court issued an order finding that under Jewish law, plaintiff's refusal was criminal and that Jewish persons must avoid dealing with plaintiff. That rabbinical court order was sent to plaintiff's rabbi in New Jersey, and was published on several websites.
In April 2015, plaintiff filed a civil complaint ... in New Jersey. Specifically, plaintiff contended that defendants aided and abetted in the kidnapping of his daughter, defamed him, and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him.

Sunday, July 09, 2017

3rd Circuit Rejects Religious Practice Defenses By Rabbis In Divorce Kidnapping Prosecutions

In United States v. Stimler, (3d Cir., July 7, 2017), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of three Orthodox Jewish rabbis for kidnapping related offenses.  The rabbis were involved in Jewish religious court (beth din) proceedings which would authorize forcible actions against a recalcitrant husband to convince him to provide his civilly divorced wife with a religious divorce document (a get).  They worked with "muscle men" who would be paid to kidnap and torture the targeted husband. Among the issues raised on appeal were two that focused explicitly on religious freedom claims.

The rabbis asserted that because it is a religious commandment to help a civilly divorced wife obtain a get, it violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to prosecute them for their role in doing so.  The appeals court rejected that argument, concluding that while the prosecution "undoubtedly constituted a burden on their sincerely held religious beliefs," it was not a "substantial" burden, saying in part:
the District Court properly analyzed whether the burden was “substantial” by looking to acceptable alternative means of religious practice that remained available to the defendants. Here, none of the defendants argue that they are unable to participate in the mitzvah of liberating agunot without engaging in kidnapping; as the District Court noted, “it is unclear whether all non-violent methods were exhausted before the alleged kidnappings took place here.” The defendants do not challenge this determination on appeal.... 
The court added that even if there were a "substantial" burden, "the government has a compelling interest in uniform application of laws about violent crimes and that no other effective means of such uniformity existed."

The appeals court also rejected the argument of one of the defendants that his joinder with the other two amounted to a separate RFRA violation.

The appeals court also upheld the district court's refusal to admit evidence about Jewish religious law and the religious motivation for the defendants' actions.  The federal kidnapping statute requires that the kidnapping be committed for some reward or benefit. The court held that the religious benefit of performing a mitzvah (commandment) is sufficient to come within the statute. It also apparently agreed with the district court's conclusion that a religious motivation does not negate criminal intent.  Additionally, the court rejected defendants' argument that the husbands, by practicing Orthodox Judaism and signing a marriage contract, implicitly agreed to the use of force that might be authorized by a Jewish religious court. Finally, on the evidentiary issue, the court said:
We further agree with the District Court that any marginal relevance that the religious evidence may have had was substantially outweighed by the prejudicial impact it would have had on the trial. Suggesting that the defendants acted for a religious purpose might have given rise to the potential for jury nullification, which we have held is substantially prejudicial.
NJ Advance Media reports on some of the other issues covered by the decision. [Thanks to Tom Rutledge for being the first reader to send me the lead.]

Friday, January 27, 2017

3rd Circuit Hears Appeal In Convictions For Coercing Jewish Divorce Documents

The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday heard oral arguments in United States v. Stimler. (Audio of full oral arguments.) In the case, a New Jersey federal district court convicted three defendants on charges growing out of arrangements to abduct, beat and torture recalcitrant Jewish husbands who refused to give their civilly divorced wives a religious divorce document (get). (See prior posting.) According to AP's report on Wednesday's oral arguments, defendants' attorneys argued, among other things, that the trial judge erred in not admitting evidence into trial that explained the defendants' religious beliefs. (See prior related posting.) Attorneys also argued lack of search warrants to obtain cellphone records.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

New York Trial Court Holds State's "Get" Law Unconstitutional In Some Applications

In an important decision handed down last week, a New York state trial court held unconstitutional, at least in some situations, the New York statutory provision allowing a divorce court to pressure a Jewish husband economically to give a Jewish religious bill of divorce ("get") to his wife.  Under New York's DRL §236B(6)(o), when a wife sues for divorce the court may consider her husband's maintenance of a barrier to her remarriage in deciding on distribution of marital property or the award of spousal maintenance.

In Masri v. Masri, (NY Sup Ct Orange Cty, Jan. 13, 2017), the court recognized that a previous state appellate case had upheld the constitutionality of the statutory provision where the husband has withheld a get to extract concessions from the wife in the matrimonial litigation. However the court distinguished the case before it from that precedent. The court said in part:
The withholding of a Get to extort financial concessions from one's spouse constitutes simony, i.e., an exchange of supernatural things for temporal advantage. When the husband himself so unambiguously subordinates his religion to purely secular ends, he may properly be said to have forfeited the protective mantle of the First Amendment, and the court may, quite rightfully and without constitutional hindrance, impose the secular remedies authorized by the Domestic Relations Law.
Here, however, there is not the slightest evidence that the Defendant has withheld a Get from Plaintiff to extract concessions in matrimonial litigation or for other wrongful purposes. According to Plaintiff's own evidence, Defendant has invoked religious grounds for refusing to cooperate in obtaining a Jewish religious divorce, i.e., that Plaintiff by going to secular court has waived her right to rabbinical arbitration concerning the Get....
... [I]n the circumstances presented here, increasing the amount or the duration of Defendant's post-divorce spousal maintenance obligation pursuant to DRL §236B(6)(o) by reason of his refusal to give Plaintiff a Jewish religious divorce or "Get" would violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments.... There is no evidence that the Defendant has withheld a Get to extract concessions ... or for other wrongful purposes. The religious and social consequences of which Plaintiff complains flow not from any impropriety in Defendant's withholding a "Get", but from religious beliefs to which Plaintiff no less than Defendant subscribes. To apply coercive financial pressure because of the perceived unfairness of Jewish religious divorce doctrines to induce Defendant to perform a religious act would plainly interfere with the free exercise of his (and her) religion and violate the First Amendment.
New York Law Journal reports on the decision.

Friday, September 09, 2016

Two Charged With Conspiracy In Plan To Coerce Jewish Religious Divorce

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the filing of a criminal complaint against an Israeli rabbi connected with the Satmar Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel, New York, as well as against a 25-year old Kiryas Joel resident, charging them with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder for hire.  The plot, revealed to authorities by a confidential source ("CS") who was contacted by the two, started as a planned kidnapping in order to coerce the victim into granting a Jewish religious divorce ("get") to the intended victim's wife.  The plot developed into one of possible murder of the victim.  The criminal complaint (full text) in United States v. Liebowitz, (SD NY, filed 9/6/2016), charges Rabbi Aharon Goldberg and Shimen Liebowitz with advancing over $57,000 to have the plan carried out. JTA reports on the case.