Verdict has reported on a curious divorce case which centers around the question of if a married couple, living apart, engages in phone sex, are they still separated?
Nick Bergeris filed for divorce on grounds of a 12-month separation (a legal ground for divorce in Maryland) that was free of in-person sex, but not free of phone sex. He was denied the divorce by the trial court, but that ruling was recently reversed on appeal.
After March 2011 the estranged spouses never spent a night under the same roof and never had in-person intimate contact. But the wife argues, and the husband concedes, that they communicated via telephone calls and text messages that “were of an explicit or provocative sexual nature.”
Chaninat & Leeds is a Bangkok based international law firm specializing in Thailand divorce law and complex cross border litigation
Under Maryland no fault divorce law divorce is permitted after one year if the separation was mutual and voluntary (or became that way at least twelve months before the divorce petition was filed), with no intent to resume the marriage relationship.
The Bergeris case raises two questions: (1) Is sex equivalent to “cohabitation” for purposes of gauging whether a couple is really separated; and (2) If so, does phone sex count?
The appellate court disagreed with the trial court and ruled that phone sex, in whatever form, does not fall within the meaning of “cohabitation.” The Bergeris court relied on cases from Louisiana and Florida concluding that phone sex with someone other than one’s spouse does not constitute adultery.
Read the full story here
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