## Facts

- Tahereh Ghassemi and Hamid Ghassemi, first cousins and Iranian citizens, were married in Bam, Iran in 1976 and had a son in 1977.
- In 1977, Hamid entered the United States on a student visa; Tahereh later entered the United States as a permanent resident in 2005.
- In 2006, Tahereh sued in East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court seeking divorce, spousal support, and partition of community property based on the Iranian marriage.
- Hamid contested the existence or recognition of a valid marriage, asserting (among other defenses) that (1) the parties’ consanguinity barred recognition and (2) Louisiana courts should not recognize Iranian documents or law due to the absence of U.S.–Iran diplomatic relations.

## Issues

1. Whether a Louisiana court may categorically refuse to recognize Iranian marriage documents and legal acts based solely on geopolitical hostility or lack of diplomatic relations.
2. Whether a marriage between first cousins, valid where celebrated in Iran, is nonrecognizable in Louisiana as violating a “strong public policy” under Louisiana conflict-of-laws rules.

## Decision

- The court of appeal reversed the judgment sustaining the exception of no cause of action and dismissing the petition to the extent it rested on refusal to recognize the Iranian marriage.
- The court held the trial court erred by adopting a blanket refusal to recognize any Iranian documents, decrees, judgments, statutes, or contracts based on international relations.
- Applying Louisiana conflict-of-laws principles, the court held a first-cousin marriage valid where contracted must be treated as valid in Louisiana because Louisiana’s policy against such marriages was not shown to be a “strong public policy” barring recognition.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings on the merits of the divorce and related claims.
- The appellate court affirmed the appealed interlocutory rulings.

## Legal Principles

- Personal status determinations in private disputes cannot be made contingent on fluctuating international relations; geopolitical hostility alone is not a lawful basis to refuse recognition of foreign legal acts.
- Under Louisiana conflict-of-laws rules (including La. Civ. Code art. 3520), a marriage valid where contracted is treated as valid in Louisiana unless recognition would seriously conflict with a strong public policy of the state.
- A “strong public policy” sufficient to defeat recognition requires clear, emphatic legislative expression; mere in-state prohibition of forming a marriage does not, by itself, establish nonrecognition of an out-of-state or foreign marriage.
- Louisiana’s disapproval of first-cousin marriages was not shown to be so strong as to justify invalidating a foreign marriage that was valid where celebrated.

## Conclusion

The court of appeal required Louisiana courts to evaluate foreign marriages under established conflict-of-laws rules rather than categorical rejection based on diplomatic hostility, and it held that a first-cousin marriage validly contracted in Iran must be recognized in Louisiana absent a clearly expressed strong public policy to the contrary.


Ghassemi v. Ghassemi, 998 So. 2d 731 (La. Ct. App. 1st Cir. 2008)