Flanagan v. Flanagan
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
956 A.2d 829 (Md. App. 2008)
After nearly 20 years of marriage, Stephanie Flanagan (plaintiff) sought a divorce on the fault-based ground of constructive desertion, citing Wayne's excessive drinking and persistent online sexual contacts with other women, and Wayne (defendant) counter-petitioned on the fault-based ground of actual desertion. At the hearing, Wayne denied excessive drinking but admitted to an online encounter with another woman and said he was stunned when Stephanie announced she was leaving. Despite neither party having pled it, the trial court awarded Stephanie a divorce on the no-fault ground of voluntary separation, and Wayne appealed.
Whether, generally, a trial court should grant a no-fault divorce when the parties have not advanced that ground in their petitions and each has instead asserted a fault-based ground for divorce.