Thought first marriage was void

What is the name of your state? 21 years ago when I was 18 I was coerced into a quickie wedding ceremony in Las Vegas with an illegal immigrant I only had known for 3 days. This “marriage” was never consummated and the man was arrested the next day in Las Vegas. After this man was taken away (I do not know if it was INS or Las Vegas police who took him) I immediately returned to my home in West Virginia. I vaguely remember calling someone in Las Vegas to inquire about what had happened to the immigrant and was told that he had been deported back to Iran (this man never told me he was Iranian, he lied and told me he was from Germany.)
Being only 18 and very naïve I figured I could put this behind me and forget it ever happened. I was not very educated about the law and assumed that because the man was an illegal alien who lied to me and coerced me into the quickie wedding only to stay in the U.S., the marriage was illegal and would be treated by the law as if it never happened.
Soon after returning to W.V., I met a much older man. We dated for a year and I moved in with him in early 1983. We had a daughter together—she was born February, 1984. After we had lived together for over 2 years we were married in February 1985. (By the way, I had told my husband what had happened to me in Las Vegas before we even moved in together. His main concern was how glad he was that nothing worse happened to me and he figured that since the man had been deported there was nothing more I had to worry about. He urged me to forget it ever happened and not tell anyone else about it.)
After marrying in February 1985 we lived in a mobile home until November 1993 when we purchased a new home in Ohio. The money for our home came from some money my husband inherited from an aunt and money we had saved up during our marriage. We had joint checking and savings accounts and I have a copy of the certified checks we used to pay for the house and both our names are on the checks with “OR” between them.
The deed for the house has both our names on it as follows: John Doe and Jane Doe, Husband and Wife, for and during their joint lives with remainder in fee simple to the survivor. My husband passed away in January 1995. He did not have a will because we thought it unnecessary (all of our assets were used to pay for our house and it was set up to go to the surviving spouse.) My daughter and I have lived in our house since November 1993 and we have paid the real estate taxes every year since my husband passed in January 1995.
My husband had a daughter from a previous relationship (she is now 50 years old—I am 39). She has always hated me and my daughter. This past October 2002 she filed a civil lawsuit against me based on the unfortunate sham marriage that happened to me 21 years ago. I do not know how she found out about it. Her complaint says that I was married in Las Vegas in September 1981 and my marriage to her father in February 1985 was void because of this. She somehow became administrator of my husbands “estate” and is trying to get the deed on my house reformed to show that he was the sole owner. As I said before I lived with my husband 2 years before we were married in 1985. We had a 1 year old daughter when we were married. We had been married for 8 ½ years when we purchased our house in 1993. We were together from 1983 to 1995 (when he passed away). It also says in her complaint that I hid what had happened to me in Las Vegas from my husband (this is untrue, I told him all about it 2 years before we were married.)
When my husband and I married in February 1985 we did not give any thought to what had happened in Las Vegas because we truly believed that was never a valid marriage. Can this cruel woman truly take away my house because of what happened to me 21 years ago? We bought this house in 1993 for our 9 year old daughter. (She is now 18). She intends to continue living in this house and to eventually raise a family here. I have verbally given her the house already.
I have spoken with an attorney who says the first thing he will do is research the illegal alien I “married” all those years ago to see if maybe he was already married or there was something else that prevented him from legally “marrying” me. This lawyer says it will cost me $5000.00 in legal fees and will take a year to be resolved. Does this sound like the best route to take? Someone told me that if it is found that I was not legally married to my husband from 1985-1995 that does not mean that his daughter can take my house away because we still lived together for 12 years and have a daughter together. Is this correct?
I am currently unemployed with no income. My daughter attends college on a scholarship. She has a part time minimum wage job that pays our food and utility bills. I was able to borrow $2500.00 to pay the lawyer to start researching the Iranian illegal alien. Is there something I can do to speed this all along? If I can’t come up with any more money to pay my lawyer can I represent myself in common pleas court? Can I receive legal aid?
My main question is: Even if the law says my husband and I were not married from 1985-1995, does the fact that we thought we were married and lived together as husband and wife matter? Did we have to legally be husband and wife to purchase a house together? Would this be a putative marriage?
Also—I was an abused child from a very dysfunctional family which is why I was by myself in Las Vegas at age 18. When I told my lawyer about this and how I was used by the Iranian man and coerced into the wedding ceremony in Vegas he said none of that mattered. Is this true? Won’t it matter to a judge to know the details of why I believed the “marriage” was invalid?
If there is someone who can give me advice or answer any questions concerning this unfortunate situation my daughter and I are going through I would be very grateful.

Mrs. D
OHIO

[stealth2]

Ohio does not recognize common law marriage. If your marriage to this man is declared void - you were living together. Yes, I would definitely go the lawyer route as this is not something you're going to easily tackle yourself.

As for how and why you ended up in Las Vegas by yourself at 18 - the lawyer is right - it doesn't matter.

Did you file the certificate? You have to do that in order to get a marraige certificate and for the state to even know that there was a marraige. I'm guessing you did this at a chapel?

If you didn't, I would deny it. There would be no record of the marraige anywhere.

[kat1963]

My thoughts: Pay the lawyer. She did her investigation of you. It is now up to you to show that the marriage wasn't legal and that you can provide the proper papers showing it. That your marriage to her father was legal. I don't think you can since you filed nothing to terminate the first one. You entered into a legal agreement of marriage, it takes another legal agreement to get out of it. Young & stupid isn't going to cut it. HIRE the lawyer...or yeah, you could be toast.
KAT

[enricosuave]

There are places, like one I've used before, where online you can do searches on public records much cheaper than with an attorney. (much cheaper) One I've used is [url]www.knowx.com[/url] , or [url]www.merlindata.com[/url] . But there are plenty.

I suggest you do a search on Marriages for Clark County, Nevada (for the Las Vegas 'wedding') and see what they have. Even if there is a recorded marriage 'license'.. what you want to know is if there's a recorded "marriage certificate". (The license expires usually within 30 days, the 'certificate' is what shows the marriage was enterred into county records.)

If it turns out there is a marriage certificate, immediately file for an annulment, not a divorce. Ask the County Clerk (of Clark County, Nevada) what papers you need and you can probably fax them in and back. This is a process you can do without an attorney and much faster than waiting for him to "get around" to your case at $1,000's of $$.

[nailtech]

here is a link on annulments for Nevada.... I'm sure you will have to copy and paste the link into a browser since it's still not working properly...


[url]http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-125.html#NRS125Sec290[/url]



as far as the house, I dont see how she can take your name off the deed,.. in Texas two people can purchase a house even if its two cousins, two females or two friends or what ever they are... not just married people are allowed to buy a house together... you may lose your husbands half but I dont see how you could lose your half of the house,... but I could be wrong theres loopholes to everything...

Thank you for your advice. I have a question. Even if I do go through the process of getting the Las Vegas "marriage" annulled, Isn't it too late to affect the possibility of my losing my house? If I have it annulled will that make my marriage from 1985-1995 valid? Also, even if it is found that I was legally married to the Iranian man: since I didn't realize it was valid and when I married another man (who knew all about it), doesn't it matter that we really thought we were married and lived together for 12 years? Or can his previous daughter really take my house away? Thank you for any response.

[nailtech]

heres the way I see it, if you try and make your second marriage valid, knowing the first one was not divorced or annulled, that would make you a bigomist.... I really think she's got you over a barrell here, and your husband must have told her about the first one... or someone in Your family.... I think what everyone is trying to tell you is try and find a way the first one was not recorded to make it voided.. but then again who knows your first husband who you may still be legally married to might have died and left a fortune sitting around... or still alive and owns a bank or something.... ya just never know he's had time to build a nice nest egg.... but I still dont see how she can take your half of a house no matter if you were married or not.... no law that I have ever read about states you have to be married to joint own a house and have a valued interest in it...
look at it this way, if you and your sister bought a house together, she died and then her children would receive her half... you would still own half..and besides your child would still hold an interest in it as well she would have to split her half with the child... anyway thats the way I see it...but then again I'm not a lawyer...

[nailtech]

even if the courts don't aknowledge your marriage, your daughter would be intitled to half of splits of the other children he has... maybe you need to think of your daughter filing for her half of the estate if it goes in that direction

§ 2105.06 Statute of descent and distribution.

Text of Statute

When a person dies intestate having title or right to any personal property, or to any real estate or inheritance, in this state, the personal property shall be distributed, and the real estate or inheritance shall descend and pass in parcenary, except as otherwise provided by law, in the following course:
(A) If there is no surviving spouse, to the children of the intestate or their lineal descendants, per stirpes;
(B) If there is a spouse and one or more children of the decedent or their lineal descendants surviving, and all of the decedent's children who survive or have lineal descendants surviving also are children of the surviving spouse, then the whole to the surviving spouse;
(C) If there is a spouse and one child of the decedent or the child's lineal descendants surviving and the surviving spouse is not the natural or adoptive parent of the decedent's child, the first twenty thousand dollars plus one-half of the balance of the intestate estate to the spouse and the remainder to the child or the child's lineal descendants, per stirpes;
(D) If there is a spouse and more than one child or their lineal descendants surviving, the first sixty thousand dollars if the spouse is the natural or adoptive parent of one, but not all, of the children, or the first twenty thousand dollars if the spouse is the natural or adoptive parent of none of the children, plus one-third of the balance of the intestate estate to the spouse and the remainder to the children equally, or to the lineal descendants of any deceased child, per stirpes;
(E) If there are no children or their lineal descendants, then the whole to the surviving spouse;
(F) If there is no spouse and no children or their lineal descendants, to the parents of the intestate equally, or to the surviving parent;
(G) If there is no spouse, no children or their lineal descendants, and no parent surviving, to the brothers and sisters, whether of the whole or of the half blood of the intestate, or their lineal descendants, per stirpes;
(H) If there are no brothers or sisters or their lineal descendants, one-half to the paternal grandparents of the intestate equally, or to the survivor of them, and one-half to the maternal grandparents of the intestate equally, or to the survivor of them;
(I) If there is no paternal grandparent or no maternal grandparent, one-half to the lineal descendants of the deceased grandparents, per stirpes; if there are no such lineal descendants, then to the surviving grandparents or their lineal descendants, per stirpes; if there are no surviving grandparents or their lineal descendants, then to the next of kin of the intestate, provided there shall be no representation among such next of kin;
(J) If there are no next of kin, to stepchildren or their lineal descendants, per stirpes;
(K) If there are no stepchildren or their lineal descendants, escheat to the state.

[nailtech]

I was hoping this is what you meant by remaining spouse/survivorship...


[§ 5309.08.1] § 5309.081 Transfer of interest of deceased survivorship tenant.
Text of Statute


When an interest in title to registered land is vested in two or more persons as a survivorship tenancy and one of the survivorship tenants dies, the interest of the decedent shall be transferred by presenting to the county auditor and filing with the county recorder either a certificate of transfer as provided in section 2113.61 of the Revised Code, or an affidavit accompanied by a certified copy of a death certificate and by an owner's duplicate of the relevant certificate of title. The affidavit shall certify that the owner of a survivorship tenancy interest in the title to a parcel or parcels of registered land has died and recite the names of the surviving tenants, the current residence address of each surviving tenant, the date of death of the decedent, a description of the land, and the number of the certificate of title where the land is registered. The county recorder shall register the title in the surviving tenants, upon a new folium in the register of titles; enter all memorials, notations, and memoranda to which the land is subject at the time of transfer; and issue a new certificate of title to the surviving tenants setting forth all of the information as to each required to be shown pursuant to section 5309.40 of the Revised Code.

HISTORY: 140 v S 201 (Eff 4-4-85); 144 v H 280. Eff 8-19-92.

[ibcurious]

Who knows...your first husband may have died before you were even married to your second one. That's something else to look into...