Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Re: Marriage Under An Alias Name Legally Recognized

Probably. The fact that she used her "stepfather's" name would not, in itself, prevent the marriage. If she intended to be married and the husband knew who she was, the name is not important. It is not that uncommon for a person to use his or her family's last name, even if it had never been legally changed.

The "probably" comes in because of one unlikely situation. IF the husband thought that he was marrying someone else and the husband was induced to marry her because of fraud, then the marriage can be annulled IF the husband has not cohabited with the wife since learning of the fraud. This would be an extremely unlikely case, but it could happen. The fraud would probably have to be more than just the wrong name and the husband must have been actually defrauded; in other words, he must not have know about the fraud. Fraudulent inducment would be tough to prove in court. If there is a significant amount of property involved and if the marriage lasted a long time, then the difference between a divorce and an annulment can be substantial.