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In re Marriage of Guo and Sun

186 Cal. App. 4th 1491, 112 Cal. Rptr. 3d 906 (2010)

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In re Marriage of Guo and Sun

California Court of Appeal
186 Cal. App. 4th 1491, 112 Cal. Rptr. 3d 906 (2010)

  • Written by Liz Nakamura, JD

Facts

Xiao Hua Sun (defendant) and Xia Guo (plaintiff) started dating when Sun was still married to his first wife. In January 2001, Sun met with his lawyer to commence divorce proceedings. On February 14, 2001, Sun married Guo. At the time of the marriage, Guo believed that Sun was already divorced. The next day, Sun’s attorney filed a petition to dissolve Sun’s marriage to his first wife. That petition was granted in August 2001. In August 2007, Guo filed a petition to nullify her marriage to Sun on the basis of bigamy. Guo did not seek to be classified as Sun’s putative spouse even though Guo had a good-faith belief in the validity of their marriage until discovering Sun’s bigamy. The trial court granted the judgment of nullity. Subsequently, Sun moved to be declared Guo’s putative spouse. The trial court denied Sun’s motion, holding that he did not qualify as a putative spouse because he did not have an objectively reasonable, good-faith belief that his marriage to Guo was valid. Sun appealed, arguing that even if he did not have a good-faith belief in the marriage’s validity, he was entitled to putative-spouse status based on Guo’s innocent, good-faith belief in the marriage’s validity.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Kitching, J.)

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