Lewis v. Anderson

173 S.W.3d 556 (2005)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Anderson (W), a nurse, and Lewis (H), a medical doctor, were married in a formal ceremony in December 1974. They bought a house in 1976. H testified that in 1976 or 1977, it became clear to him that a divorce was necessary. One of his reasons was that W was reluctant to sign documents about financial matters. H prepared the divorce papers himself without a lawyer and W signed the waiver of service and divorce decree. Lewis presented the documents to the court, and the divorce decree was signed on May 26, 1977. H and W then lived together for the next twenty years, until 1998. During this time, they joined a church as 'Hal and Mindy Lewis' and adopted two children. Documents in both adoption proceedings referred to them as husband and wife, 'Dr. and Mrs. Lewis,' or 'Harold and Mindy Lewis.' The couple attended H family functions together and celebrated wedding anniversaries. H wore a wedding ring until the couple separated in 1998. The record contains one tax return filed by the couple in 1997 as married filing jointly. H could not remember whether earlier tax returns were filed jointly or singly, but said the 1997 return was a mistake and he had notified the IRS of the mistake. W filed for divorce in 1998. The jury found the parties were informally married as of September 21, 1982, the date they filed the petition to adopt their first child.