## Facts

- Xiao Hua Sun was still legally married to a prior spouse when he began a relationship with Xia Guo.
- Sun met with an attorney in January 2001 to start dissolving his first marriage.
- On February 14, 2001, Sun and Guo participated in a marriage ceremony; Guo believed Sun was already divorced.
- The day after the ceremony, Sun’s attorney filed the dissolution petition for Sun’s first marriage; the divorce was not finalized until August 2001.
- Because Sun remained married at the time of the ceremony with Guo, the later marriage was void due to bigamy.
- In 2007, after learning the chronology, Guo sought and obtained a judgment of nullity; she did not request putative-spouse status.

## Issues

1. Whether a spouse who knowingly entered a bigamous marriage and lacked an objectively reasonable good-faith belief in its validity may be declared a putative spouse under Family Code § 2251 solely because the other spouse innocently believed the marriage was valid.
2. Whether Family Code § 2251 permits “derivative” putative-spouse status for the non-innocent spouse, as construed in a prior appellate decision.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the order denying Sun’s request to be declared a putative spouse.
- Family Code § 2251 requires an individualized showing that the party seeking putative-spouse status personally held a good-faith, objectively reasonable belief that the marriage was valid.
- Sun could not satisfy that requirement because he knew he was still married when the ceremony occurred.
- The court declined to follow the contrary interpretation that would allow a spouse lacking good faith to obtain putative-spouse status based on the other spouse’s belief.

## Legal Principles

- Under Family Code § 2251, putative-spouse status turns on whether the party seeking the declaration actually and in objective reasonableness believed the marriage was valid.
- The statute’s reference to “either party or both parties” requires separate evaluation of each party’s good-faith belief; one spouse’s good faith does not confer status on the other.
- Putative-spouse doctrine is equitable and functions to protect an innocent spouse who entered a void or voidable marriage under a reasonable mistake of fact or law.
- A spouse who knew (or could not reasonably believe otherwise) that a marriage was invalid due to an existing marriage is not entitled to putative-spouse protections.

## Conclusion

The court held that putative-spouse status under Family Code § 2251 is not available to a spouse who knowingly participated in a bigamous marriage, even if the other spouse reasonably and in good faith believed the marriage was valid, and it affirmed denial of Sun’s request for putative-spouse treatment.


In re Marriage of Guo & Sun, 186 Cal. App. 4th 1491, 112 Cal. Rptr. 3d 906 (Cal. Ct. App. 2010)