Estate of Ladd v. Estate of Ladd

The Court holds that a divorce is final only when the nisi period is “absolute.” If a party dies before then, the divorce “abates” and is “nullified.” Not only does this sound archaic, the holding undermines the purpose of nisi decrees and is contrary to a recent amendment to the statute governing them. I respectfully dissent.

The only Vermont precedent underpinning the Court’s senseless result is dictum in In re Hanrahan’s Will, 109 Vt. 108, 128, 194 A. 471, 481 (1937) (“well settled that nisi divorce decrees do not dissolve the marriages, and that the death of either party before they become…