Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska
Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska
Child Support Enforcement - Sarpy County Nebraska
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Common Law Marriages<br />
States that authorize common law marriage: Alabama, Colorado, District of<br />
Columbia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.<br />
Sonya C. Garza, Common Law Marriage: A Proposal for the Revival of a Dying Doctrine, 40<br />
New Eng. L. Rev. 541, 545 (2006).<br />
<strong>Nebraska</strong> is not a “common law state,” however <strong>Nebraska</strong> will recognize the validity of<br />
common law marriages formed in jurisdictions that allow for them. For more information on this<br />
issue, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage_in_the_United_States<br />
Essentially, in a common law marriage, two persons create a valid marital relationship<br />
without the benefit of a legal marriage ceremony performed according to statutory requirements.<br />
Denise K. Mills, Common Law Marriage in Colorado, 16 Colo. Law. 252 (Feb. 1987).<br />
The United States Supreme Court has held that common law marriages are valid,<br />
notwithstanding statutes that require ceremonial marriages to be solemnized by a minister or a<br />
magistrate, if no specific provision to the contrary exists. Meister v. Moore, 96 U.S. 76, 24 L.Ed.<br />
826 (1877).<br />
Courts in various jurisdictions have uniformly declared that the common law age of<br />
consent applies to common law marriages, even when statutes otherwise require parental or<br />
judicial approval for persons under a specified age, unless those statutes expressly modify or<br />
abrogate the common law. The common law marriage of a person is valid, regardless of<br />
whether the person has reached the age of competency as established by statute, if the person<br />
is competent under the common law. Under English common law, children below the age of<br />
seven were incapable of marrying. After that age they could marry, but the marriage was<br />
voidable until they became able to consummate it, which the law presumed to be at age<br />
fourteen for males and twelve for females. 1 Homer H. Clark, Jr., The Law of Domestic<br />
Relations in the United States § 2.1 (2d ed. 1987)<br />
In the case of People v. Lucero, 747 P.2d 660 (Colo. 1987), the Colorado Supreme<br />
Court set out the requirements for a valid common law marriage in Colorado. These<br />
requirements are as follows:<br />
- mutual consent or agreement of the parties to be husband and wife; followed by<br />
- mutual assumption of the marital relationship<br />
Spitz v. T.O. Haas Tire Co., 283 Neb. 811, ____ N.W.2d ____ (May 2012)<br />
In <strong>Nebraska</strong>, a couple cannot create a common-law marriage by agreement or<br />
cohabitation and reputation.<br />
Conditional Judgments<br />
Jensen v. Jensen, 275 Neb. 921, 750 N.W.2d 335 (2008)<br />
Facts: Paternity order was modified after the parents of the minor child separated, to include a<br />
judicially approved agreement whereby father paid mother $14,000 in cash, with the<br />
understanding that mother would not ask father for child support for the parties’ minor child, but<br />
that if she changed her mind, the father would be entitled to an equitable credit for the $14,000.<br />
Numerous modification actions later, dad was ordered to pay support, with no credit for the<br />
$14,000 prior payment. Eventually dad filed a declaratory judgment action, seeking the credit.<br />
Mom objected, wanting the agreement voided as being, inter alia, a conditional order and<br />
against public policy. Held: The parties’ original arrangement will be honored by the court.<br />
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