This "reminder" is presented as a public service by the national law firm of Charles Jerome Ware, P.A., Attorneys & Counsellors. This law firm is headquartered conveniently in Columbia, Howard County, Maryland. For a courtesy initial consultation, contact us at www.charlesjeromeware.com, (410) 730-5016, (410) 720-6129.
Recently (on or about October 2nd, 2013) it was reported that a Winnebago County, Illinois judge
had dismissed a woman's petition to the court for an order allowing her to marry her boyfriend of 38 years who suffered from a severe brain injury during surgery on November 30, 2009. the court's reasoning was that the boyfriend lacked the requisite "capacity to consent" to the marriage because
of his severe brain injury.
The boyfriend, John Morris, lives under 24-hour nursing care at the home where he lives with the girlfriend, Colette Purifoy.
Illinois state law requires the "capacity to consent to marriage" by the two participants, and there is no provision in the law allowing a guardian to consent on behalf of a ward, the judge ruled; even
though the parties may have been previously engaged to marry, owned a home together, had combined their assets and had a child together.
The Winnebago County Clerk had refused to issue a marriage certificate for the couple, citing state law that requires each person to " sign the marriage application" and to " appear before the clerk ."
We believe under Maryland Family Law the ruling would have been similar in Maryland courts.
[http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/brain-injured_man_cant_marry_judge_rules/October 7, 2013].
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