Also known as: digama · digamies · digamous · second marriage · remarriage
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A second marriage contracted after termination of a prior marriage by death or divorce. Remarriage in this form commonly triggers statutory consequences such as termination of spousal maintenance obligations.
Deanna Davenport received monthly maintenance from her former husband under a dissolution decree. After she married Darius Dixon, the former husband stopped payments. The court held that the obligation terminated upon the second marriage because the decree contained no contrary written agreement.
Sheldon Brown remarried and had three children with his second wife. When calculating support for the child from his first marriage, the court refused to apply the serial-family-payer formula because the additional support obligation arose from the second marriage rather than from a subsequent court order.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Indigent parties seeking dissolution could not afford filing fees required before entering a second marriage. The Court held that the state must provide an adequate opportunity to obtain a divorce so that individuals may exercise the right to remarry without unconstitutional barriers.
A white mother remarried a Black man after losing custody of her child. The Court ruled that the subsequent marriage and change in household composition could not justify denying custody on racial grounds, because such considerations violate equal-protection principles.
After a dissolution decree, one spouse appealed only the property division. The other spouse then entered a second marriage. The court upheld the new marriage because the appeal did not challenge the finding that the first marriage was irretrievably broken, rendering the status portion final.
A Georgia divorce decree awarded support but did not address future modifications. After the recipient remarried in another state, the Court held that the second marriage did not automatically terminate the support obligation because the original decree lacked an express provision linking remarriage to termination.
Yes. Under the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, the obligation to pay future maintenance terminates upon the remarriage of the recipient unless the decree or a written agreement provides otherwise.
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Yes, provided the appeal does not challenge the finding that the first marriage was irretrievably broken. The marital-status portion of the decree becomes final on its own timetable and permits remarriage even while property issues remain unresolved.
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Under the Uniform Probate Code, divorce or annulment revokes certain beneficiary designations by operation of law, but a subsequent remarriage to the former spouse revives the revoked provisions.
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No. Conditioning remarriage on a financial showing imposes a substantial burden on the fundamental right to marry and is subject to heightened scrutiny. Less restrictive collection remedies must be used instead.
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No. A facially valid, unstayed divorce decree reciting finality supplies satisfactory proof that the prior marriage has ended, even while an appeal remains pending, so the clerk must issue the license.
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…defence of religious belief or duty. On the trial, the plaintiff in error, the accused, proved that at the time of his alleged second marriage he was, and for many years before had been, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, and a believer in its doctrines; that it was an…