Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
My husband and I met in TX in 2003. He lost his job in TX and found a new job in GA. We decided to make the move to GA together. I quit my job in TX. I was unemployed for almost 6 months in GA. Our first year in GA was hell. I decided to leave due to violence. I moved out, bought me a little home far from him. In 2008, he found me, reached out, we started dating and decided to get married and make it official. We started our marriage process in GA, because we were living in GA, we were tild all paper work had to filed in GA, but had every intention of having the cereminy in TX, because the majority if our family was in TX, memories were in TX and TX is hime for me. Step 1, we had to file with the county we resided in, Fulton County. We filed and paid a small. Step 2, we had to go to the Court House and get married before a Judge. This step was free of charge. We never did this step. My husband decided to present me with a prenuptial agreement that held things up and had us going back and forth. Then he got really busy with work and then he was hospitalized with 5 pulmonary embolisms up through the last day that we were scheduled to be in GA. The entire wedding ceremony was planned in TX, family was thrilled, no one new anything about the last iccarances and the disagreements we were having about a one sided prenup that he oresented to me 1 month before our wedding. It was approximately 10 days before the wedding and he was returning from hia Chicago business trip, when i receive a phone call that my husband is being pulled off the airplane, being put in a stretcher and being rushed to the hospital emergency room. Once at the hospital, nurses and Dr. tell us he is being admitted. They kept him for 9 days, releasing him 1 day before the day we are scheduled to fly to TX for an already paid and planned wedfing ceremony. The ceremony occurs before akl our friends, family, witnesses. The marriage before the Judge in GA never occurred, but did occur spiritually in TX, before many witnesses. We are both now living as a married couple and understand that we are husband and wife, even though the final document/pricess did not occur before a judge. I guess we just closed our eyes and decided to forget about the prenup, etc., and just make the best if it. I try to take his name legally and that is when i discover i can not change my name on any thing with out a marriage certificate. Again, we just continue to live and say we are husband and wife and basically forget about the missing piece. He then gets a relo through his current employer that he must take or he looses his job. The relo is back to TX. We talk things over and look at our finances, do the numbers, etc., and we decide that the best thing is for us financially and as a married couple now, is for me to quit my very good job. I quit, we make the move, we sell our big house, my little house is not selling due to bad market (under my name), so we decide to rent it. In Texas fir 1 year now and i have not found a job. I am in a very tight niche industty, nuclear waste management. He has threatened often to leave me. I hsve no job, no money, stuck with a house in my name due to our constant fights and violence, which i cant sell. Am I entitled to anything? Will i be able to get alimony? He now wants me to sign a prenup and is bring up rhe subject all over again. Are we common law married? Are we married? We have a wedding date of 4/2009, with 1 year marriage in GA and now 1+ year marriage in TX and a total of 6 years living together off and on, prior to marriage, in Texas. During his threats to leave me, he keeps telling me we are not married anyway, yet he threatens to leave me if i dont sign a prenup. He is scated that i will take his saving, 401k, what we made when we sold the bigger house in GA.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You have a complicated situation. First, the easy part: You will not receive court ordered spousal maintenance no matter what. To be eligible for that, you have to have been married for at least 10 years.
Are you married? You are not married under GA law. Whether you are formally married in Texas would depend on how broadly the divorce court would be willing to read section 2.202 of the Texas Family Code. I would not count on that.
So your your best bet for finding a marriage wold be under section 2.401, et seq., of the Family Code--Informal marriage. That seems to be the strongest fit between the law and your facts.
If you are married, what are you entitled to? A just and right division of the community property, which would include all property accumulated during the marriage, with some important exceptions. As far as a 401(K) is concerned, you'd be entitled to part, say half, of the portion of the 401(k) that accumulated during the marriage.
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