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Suwei Chuang v. Ya Chen Hsieh
Citations: 92 A.D.3d 939; 939 N.Y.2d 536
Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; February 27, 2012; New York; State Appellate Court
The parties were married in January 2004, but the defendant moved out in February 2005. The plaintiff initiated annulment proceedings in April 2006, citing fraud under Domestic Relations Law § 140(e). The defendant counterclaimed for divorce based on cruel and inhuman treatment per Domestic Relations Law § 170(1). Subsequently, the plaintiff sought to compel discovery responses from the defendant, who cross-moved for a default judgment against the plaintiff for failing to timely respond to the counterclaim. On February 2, 2011, the Supreme Court issued two orders. The first awarded summary judgment to the defendant, dissolving the marriage based on the plaintiff’s incarceration under Domestic Relations Law § 170(3), despite the defendant not claiming this ground. The second order denied the plaintiff's discovery motion as academic due to the first order. The appellate court found that the Supreme Court erred in granting a divorce on an unasserted ground and noted that a valid marriage is a prerequisite for a divorce claim. Since the plaintiff’s annulment action questioned the marriage's validity, the court should not have awarded summary judgment to the defendant. Consequently, the appellate court remitted the case to the Supreme Court, Queens County, to address the plaintiff’s motion to compel on its merits.