Blank Rome partner Alan Feigenbaum discusses the legal side of dating during divorce and offers his opinion on fault-based divorce in New York.
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Of course, there are always exceptions. Some divorcing persons decree that they will never partake in any romantic relationships for the rest of time. Many, however, cannot resist the allure of togetherness, and that brings us to the topic of dating during divorce, and more specifically, the Appellate Division, First Department’s recent decision in Allen v. Allen, 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 06588 (N.Y. App. Div. 2023).
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Here are the three sentences that the First Department’s decision includes on this issue:
1. “While under Domestic Relations Law 234, the court has some discretion to make orders regarding possession of property under the circumstances of each case, nothing in the record demonstrates that the presence of the husband’s romantic partner at one of the marital residences in any way impacted the plaintiff wife’s safety.”
2. “A party going through a divorce has ‘a right to develop his or her interests or personal life’ (citation omitted).”
3. “At most, the interactions with the romantic partner, which by all accounts were civil, made the wife uncomfortable, and discomfort is an insufficient basis to exclude an otherwise non-problem-causing party, particularly where children are not involved.”
I will venture to guess that numbers “2” and “3,” above, may well be cited for years to come when BF/GF issues are litigated in New York divorce courts.
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lennyesq 