SOFA divorce

[JCKorea]

A quick question about divorce. If divorce is obtained from states yet marriage is in Korea, shouldn't divorce also happen in Korea? Question arises from soldier who obtained divorce without consent of x-wife and Army promptly evicted x-wife. X-wife is angry and wants help. She got soldier to agree to alimony, but soldier went almost immediately AWOL claiming suicide tendenacies etc. Shouldn't Army continue to support wife until member is no longer in Army or obtains legal divorce. Clearly the divorce looks fraudulent and x-wife claimed she was never served, yet lived in Army housing.

Both parties are in Korea still. Does SOFA apply in civil divorce matters?

[pissedoffmommy]

Has she spoken to anyone at a JAG office?

[JCKorea]

Jag office dismissed her saying they cannot represent her in civil matter. I suggested she show the
following case which is pretty similar and discuss the idea of suing the Govt which they will of course be all ears. She only wants continued support for housing until she gets back on her feet.

[url]http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=350700MAJ[/url]

Seems that its easy to convince the courts not to have the spouse served?

She cannot divorce by Korean law until the Korean courts recognize divorce, so I imagine he falls into the same situation given SOFA. Pretty slick to obtain divorce back in home state and file various documents which exclude her from proceedings. She has told just about everyone at USFK that she never signed a thing and was merely presented with divorce papers and eviction notice on the same day by the unit commander.

[SHORTY LONG]

If she is without funds, then she should try and contact the Legal Society, or check to
see if there is a Law School close by that may have a free legal clinic.

[DRTDEVL]

When it comes to divorce, the Army does not care where the papers come from. As long as it is a legally binding divorce decree in the US, it is treated as such on ANY installation in the world.

Just so you know, the bases in Korea are *technically* sovereign US Soil.

Just because she is foreign doesn't mean she can remain married to him forever against his will.

And the case you cited is not applicable in this case... The party filed in Washington State, but commenced with proceedings via Japanese Courts. The divorce in the US was stayed pending his return to continue with the proceedings, yet the divorce in Japan was completed during this time. The entire case was based upon this, and the fact that he attempted to move the Court of Jurisdiction to Virginia AFTER the divorce was final in Japan.

Why should the Army house the Ex-Wife when the divorce is final? Because she didn't think he would actually file? She couldn't figure out when the were separated that divorce was imminent? She couldn't deduce that he would be filing for divorce when he went home?

[JCKorea]

I think that its interesting that USFK has a policy letter which requires permission to marry a Korean, yet doesn't have policy regarding divorce. How is the wife supposed to know where the husband files and yet he can file "wavier for appearance" and "waiver of notification to serve", then obtain divorce without respect to the wifes circumstances (ie, job, money etc). Try obtaining a divorce when the other party doesn't work and you will find the courts award something called "alimony". It wreaks of fraudulent divorce yet is not investigated by the Army? In the case of the Korean, the marriage was in Korea and they both resided in Korea, so how did the service member avoid SOFA or does SOFA even mean anything? Doesn't the wife get due process in the Korean courts? I thought SOFA means that the service member abides by both U.S. and Korean law... In both the case in Korea and in Japan, the service member shops around for the "best deal". In the case of the Korean wife- nothing. While it is U.S. soil, the marriage paper was "Korean" and recognized by the U.S. The Korean lawyer says that for the wife to get a divorce, she will have to file in Korea because Korean law doesn't recognize the U.S. divorce. Interesting indeed because SOFA is clearly not in play!

[redleg17]

He doesn't need the wife's "consent" to get a divorce, however... did she know he filed? What did he file with the court to exclude her? She was living in housing, so he obviously knew how to contact her... maybe she needs to get a lawyer in the State that the divorce was filed in. Civil matters aren't a matter for JAG...they're right, it's not their problem... but he may have misled the court to get his divorce without her having a right to representation. No court is going to have divorce proceedings without one party unless they are completely unavailable.... she had a right to also file petitions to the court.

[JCKorea]

Well, more info came in with all the court documents. He provided the court with a Korean notary which waived her right to be served and appear for the proceedings. It should be quick to get people to declare the divorce as fraud given its not in accordance with standards of: Uniform Recognition of Acknowledgements Act [sec 26-3-20(4)], and CID is now investigating.

[Shellback]

I wish I could help you reslove your problem with this sudden and unexpected divorce. It sounds to me that this young servicemen wasn't ready for commitment or that he took his vow's of marriage too lightly. I fell in love with a Korean woman when my ship was stationed in Soel but she was unavailable at the time. So I married my American sweetheart when I returned to the US.