Mrs. Collins filed for divorce from Mr. Collins. Thereafter Mrs. Collins married husband no. 2. Some time later, Mr. Collins died. Mrs. Collins went to court to have her divorce vacated. (Yes, after a spouse has died, the other spouse may have the divorce vacated. Citizens will explain more later.)

Mrs. Collins appeared in Probate Court to claim the wife's share of her husband's estate. The Probate Court ruled against Mrs. Collins. Mrs. Collins appealed the trial court decision and she lost. The case finally went up to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Why was the Collins divorce vacated? Mrs. Collins filed her divorce petition under the grounds of habitual drunkenness. Contrary to most persons' understanding of Illinois law, Illinois is not a no-fault State. In Illinois a statutorily valid ground for dissolution of marriage must be asserted in a divorce action. In Illinois the statutory ground of habitual drunkenness requires that the habitually drunken spouse must be habitually drunk for a period of two or more years after marriage and before the spouse can lawfully file a Petition for Dissolution under the grounds of habitual drunkeness. At the time Mrs. Collins filed her Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, she had not been married to Mr. Collins for the statutorily required two years. Therefore at the time of filing her Petition, no legal grounds for dissolution of marriage were asserted to confer any jurisdiction on the court.

Citizens hopes that our members will see why Citizens puts so much emphasis on the issue of jurisdiction.

See also our web-page at http://www.clr.org/divorced-0.html for more information.

Are you legally divorced?

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Last updated February 21, 2001