Sounds like a script from Two and a Half Men…

It’s funny how many cases are now being published that it is almost impossible to keep up. I use this excuse because I have only just stumbled across a Family Court case published in May, which sounded like a script from Two and a Half Men.

Mr Tristan was married and in 1978 he was posted by work to Arizona where for about a month he had non-stop partying and drinking.

And then , many years later, after he had divorced his wife (they were separated in 78) and remarried, US government officials showed him another marriage certificate with his name on it – from Arizona in 1978, and yes he knew the woman. He had absolutely no recollection of that marriage or even of discussing marriage. The “wife” named on the certificate apparently had since remarried.

Why it interested US government officials was because they pointed out that when he married his current girlfriend that marriage was bigamous (and void) because of the Arizona “marriage”.

When the matter came before Justice Brown in the Family Court, her Honour had no hesitation in declaring the marriage a nullity because at the time of the Arizona “marriage” Mr Tristan was already married.