Hughes Hubbard Helps Woman Escape Abusive Marriage

Hughes Hubbard assisted a pro bono client through a complicated proceeding to obtain a divorce from her abusive husband.

The client, a New York resident referred to HHR by Her Justice (formerly inMotion), had been seeking to end her marriage since she separated from her husband in October 2011, nearly a year after they exchanged vows.

The client's case, which began as a straightforward uncontested divorce case, quickly grew complex when the court dismissed her case on the eve of granting her divorce judgment. Although the client's husband had been personally served and an affidavit of service from the process server was executed and filed, the affidavit of service did not state the color of the husband's skin. As this defect constituted a failure to prove that personal jurisdiction had been acquired over the husband, the client's divorce action was dismissed on May 14, 2013.

Hughes Hubbard moved to restore the case to the matrimonial calendar and prove that the court had jurisdiction over the husband sufficient to grant the client's divorce. After several months of motion practice and multiple court appearances, the court granted the motion to restore the case to the calendar. On Dec. 4, 2013, after three years of marriage, the client finally obtained the judgment of divorce she had long sought.

Greta Fails represented Filippova in this action, supervised by Vilia Hayes.