Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What does uncontested divorce mean?”
The Georgia Court of Appeals recently affirmed a ruling by a county superior court that ordered Christopher Kelley to pay his former fiancée nearly $50,000 for failing to marry the woman. You read that right; Kelley has been ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to Melissa Cooper for failing to follow through with his promise of marriage.
According to court documents, Kelley proposed to Cooper back in 2004, giving her an engagement ring worth more than $10,000. Cooper moved into a new home with Kelley and soon had a child with him. Cooper says Kelley then asked her to quit her job and stay home with the child; something Kelley contends was a mutual decision.
Cooper claims that several years after the proposal she learned that Kelley had been in a long-term relationship with another woman. Cooper confronted Kelley who admitted the affair, but said that he would stop seeing the other woman and again promised to marry Cooper. However, several years later Cooper says she found out Kelley had met someone new and this time was not willing to break things off. Instead, Kelley told Cooper to pack up and leave home, saying he now wanted to live with his new girlfriend.
Not one to take such matters lying down, Cooper hired a lawyer and sued Kelley, claiming that Kelley committed fraud and breached their contract to marry. Kelley fought back, claiming that though he did give Cooper a ring, he never actually used the words, “Will you marry me?” Kelley argued that he never initiated any conversations regarding marriage and was content to live together as boyfriend and girlfriend.