Update: In a decision issued November 9, 2012, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirmed the October 28, 2011 decision of Monroe County Supreme Court Justice Richard A. Dollinger for the reasons stated in Justice Dollinger’s opinion: a party’s sworn statement of irretrievable breakdown is incontestable. It is not subject to attack at trial.

Original January 30, 2012 entry:

Gloria Sorrentino, 79 years old, was compelled to endure a three-day trial to obtain her “no-fault divorce”;  and that trial was only conducted after Mrs. Sorrentino had been subjected to an inquiry as to her competency and her freedom from duress from two of her children. Acting Suffolk Supreme Court Justice James F. Quinn, in his January 12, 2012 decision in Sorrentino v. Sorrentino, declared the continuing need of a family to go through the tragedy of a divorce grounds trial despite the October, 2010 adoption of New York’s no-fault statute.

To establish her irretrievable breakdown grounds, Mrs. Sorrentino testified to the years of the lack of a relationship with her husband of 56 years. That testimony was corroborated by the detailed testimony of two of the parties’ children.

Justice Quinn ruled that this detailed and corroborated testimony, alone, was not a sufficient basis upon which a court could grant a divorce on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown. Mr. Sorrentino was entitled to challenge his wife’s case and provide his defense.

Justice Quinn held that not only was Mrs. Sorrentino required to demonstrate why she believed her marriage had broken down irretrievably, but also that the court was entitled, or rather required to reach the same conclusion objectively on the basis of all of the evidence presented. Only the court and not the parties, no less only one of the parties, was entitled to decide when a marriage had irretrievably broken down.Continue Reading No-fault Divorce Is Not Here, Yet: One Court Decides that Whether a Marriage Has Broken Down Irretrievably is an Objective Issue of Fact