A former Secret Service agent must maintain the same support obligation as before he voluntarily retired. Although he had been depleting his savings and relying on his current wife to make payments, his ex-wife’s relative financial situation justified the status ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

An adoption plan for children who suffered significant abuse and neglect while living with their biological parents will not be disturbed, despite the father’s new employment and substance-free status. Background Appellant Daniel Ray Essenmacher shared two minor children with Tymatha ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. Parental Rights Virginia Court of Appeals

Termination of parental rights was not plainly wrong, despite the mother’s contention that the Department should have further investigated potential placement of her children with extended family members. Background Following an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court terminated the residual parental ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Randolph A. Beales Parental Rights Virginia Court of Appeals

In a divorce action, the court affirmed an equitable distribution that offset the husband’s share by the amount he independently spent on college tuition for the divorcing couple’s adult son. The husband was unable to overcome the marital presumption attaching ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

A circuit court’s decision was not grounds for res judicata in a separate action, when the earlier matter remained pending on the court’s docket and contained no other language indicating it was a final decision on the merits. Background In ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Contract Domestic Relations Family Law Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

Virginia’s assisted-conception statute, which creates a presumption that a gestational mother’s husband is the father of the conceived child, is unconstitutional as written because it provides parental rights to husbands but not wives, the court held. In 2006, Plaintiff Valerie ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Stephen C. Shannon Virginia Circuit Courts

Virginia’s assisted-conception statute, which creates a presumption that a gestational mother’s husband is the father of the conceived child, is unconstitutional as written because it provides parental rights to husbands but not wives, the court held. In 2006, Plaintiff Valerie ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Stephen C. Shannon Virginia Circuit Courts

The court granted a motion in limine in which Plaintiff Caryn Kesser (Wife) asked the court to preclude Defendant Lawrence Kesser (Husband) from arguing that Wife is bound by claims in a prior proceeding as to the couple’s separation date. ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Michelle J. Atkins Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

An ex-husband’s spousal-support obligations were not extinguished by his former wife’s long-term relationship with a man who ultimately moved in next door to her but maintained his own residence, the court held. Kathryn Sue Elmore Gobble (Wife) and Mark Lowell ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Charles N. Dorsey Salem Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

The district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to consider claims by Plaintiff Oscar Ozfidan (Husband) against both his ex-wife and Henrico Circuit Judge John Marshall, who presided over the couple’s state-court divorce proceedings. After Marshall entered the couple’s divorce, Husband moved ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District