In the first appellate decision to address the issue, a panel in Rochester has held that the no-fault divorce statute does not provide one spouse with a trial right to contest the other’s assertion that the marriage has been irretrievably broken for at least six months. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, recently affirmed and adopted the reasoning of Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard Dollinger (See Profile) in Monroe County in Palermo v. Palermo (2010/15824). In Palermo, Dollinger found that a spouse cannot block a no-fault divorce by contesting his or her partner’s declaration that the marriage is irreparable (NYLJ, Feb. 9).
“New York’s legislature has enacted in DRL §170(7) a true ‘no-fault’ divorce law which does not require proof of any fault, and which does not require or permit the government, through its courts, to put people seeking a divorce on trial regarding their marriage,” Dollinger wrote.
