## Facts

- The parties underwent a formal marriage ceremony in Maryland in 1938.
- Around the time of the ceremony, they executed writings characterizing the marriage as “pretend” and “simulated,” and declaring it “null and void ab initio” and “not to be interpreted as an actual marriage.”
- After the ceremony, they cohabited as husband and wife for roughly ten years and held themselves out as married.
- The wife later became ill and unable to work and filed a support petition in New York City’s Domestic Relations Court.
- The husband opposed support, asserting the marriage was a sham and void from the outset.
- The husband also claimed the marriage and continued marital relations resulted from threats and coercion that negated free consent.

## Issues

1. Whether a support court with limited jurisdiction may treat the marriage as invalid based on the parties’ private writings and the husband’s coercion allegations.
2. Whether a spouse may avoid a duty of support by asserting that a formally celebrated marriage was “sham” or void absent a judicial annulment.

## Decision

- The court treated the marriage as legally effective for purposes of support and ordered the husband to provide support according to his means.
- The court held it lacked jurisdiction to annul or declare the marriage invalid; annulment required a court with appropriate authority.
- The court rejected the effectiveness of the parties’ private writings to nullify marital status.
- The court found the husband’s coercion account inadequately supported, particularly in light of a decade of cohabitation and acceptance of marital benefits.

## Legal Principles

- Marriage requires free and full consent, but alleged coercion or fraud renders a marriage, at most, voidable through judicial annulment rather than void by private agreement.
- Parties cannot, by contract or private declaration, erase a formally celebrated marriage in a way that defeats public policy and statutory protections for dependent spouses.
- A court empowered only to determine support must treat a marriage as existing unless and until a competent court grants an annulment.
- Long-term cohabitation and conduct consistent with marital status may weigh strongly against claims that the marriage lacked genuine consent.

## Conclusion

The court ordered spousal support, ruling that a formally celebrated marriage remained effective unless annulled by a court with proper authority, and that private “sham marriage” writings and unproven coercion claims did not defeat the husband’s support obligation.


Lester v. Lester, 195 Misc. 1034, 87 N.Y.S.2d 517 (Dom. Rel. Ct. City of N.Y. 1949)