US Court Grants Divorce Through Facebook

Introduction

In a recent past, the US Court granted a divorce for a couple through Facebook as a last resort. While passing the judgment, the honorable court had said that a woman could divorce her husband through Facebook if she failed to go along with him. This ruling had come after the husband of a New York woman was not physically traceable even after repeated serving of notices to him.

Landmark Judgement

The Judge of Manhattan Supreme Court Matthew Cooper had to pass this ruling in favor of the New York woman Ellanora Baidoo as her husband remained untraceable during the course of the trial at the family court. The court allowed the woman to send divorce summons to her missing husband Victor Sena Blood-Dzraku. The honorable court instructed her attorney to send him the petition on her behalf through the Facebook messaging system so that it could reach the man. The New York women' attorney Andrew Spinnell passed the news about this landmark judgment to the media. He told a media house in New York that his client wanted to become free. He further added that his client was very happy to hear the judgment as it had provided a mechanism for her to get the judgment of divorce from the legal authorities. The woman’s attorney would try to contact Blood-Dzraku once in a week for three weeks or until he acknowledges the receipt of the judgment. After the Facebook method of reaching the man fails, the woman would be granted the default divorce decree by the honorable court. The court had reasoned that the non-receipt of the court summons cannot become a premise for not giving divorce to a person who deserves to go out-of-wedlock.

Modern-day Judgement

In his judgment, the Justice Cooper opined that the social media platforms offer novel and non-traditional ways to communicate with people who cannot be contacted. This is because such people have no permanent house or permanent place of employment. He was referring to the case of the husband of the New York woman. He further added that summons could be served physically on those persons who present themselves readily before the court or whose whereabouts are known. If a person has no permanent place to live, the social media platforms help the authorities to pass on the softcopy of the judgment to him.  He also noted that courts in the USA had passed the judgments through emails in similar cases in the past.