11th July 2010

When most married couples split, divorce lawyers are usually concerned with the financial implications surrounding division of the marital home.

However, family law solicitors in New York are having to negotiate the physical partitioning of a house with a "divorce wall" after a judge ruled that the divorcing couple, who both refuse to leave their property, have two weeks to formally decide the allocation of space within the building.

The couple, both Orthodox Jews, married 21 years ago and have five children together, but their divorce battle revealed years of marital strife with allegations of their irreconcilable differences being levelled again and again at the divorce hearing.

On May 18th, the wife's divorce lawyer asked the court to agree temporary exclusive occupancy for her and the children, but the husband refused to move out.

The husband's divorce lawyer commented, "They've been living like there was a wall up for two years now."

The husband's family law team have also questioned why the wife refused to get divorced in a beth din - the religious tribunal which grants divorces to Jewish couples.

The husband originally put forward a plan to offer his wife and children continued occupancy of the rooms they currently live in and to give them about 700 more square feet of the large 19th Century house in the Williamsburg area of the city, but this was rejected.

Judge Eric Prus gave the couple two weeks to decide how the house-split would take place, and stipulated that if agreement could not be reached, that members of the Brooklyn divorce court would make the decision for them.

The husband's brother, a Rabbi, commented, "This could be called the divorce wall. It could probably help even healthy couples.

Divorce lawyers acting on behalf of the wife said, "It's a large house, so I think we can come up with some sort of agreement, but she wants him out."