Case Update (2021): Chaudry v. Chaudry; Islamic marriage contract and burden to prove terms before enforcing
On February 4, 2021, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, in the unreported opinion of Chaudry v. Chaudry , affirmed that a mehr signed by the parties at the time of their marriage was not an enforceable contract. The parties married in an Islamic marriage ceremony in 2004 in Virginia. At the time, the parties signed a mehr . After a tumultuous marriage, in 2018, the Wife filed a Complaint for Absolute Divorce. The Husband countered. At the conclusion of the trial, the court, among other things, ordered the Husband to pay the Wife a marital award in excess of $279,000. The Husband contends that the trial judge should have enforced the provisions in the mehr , which he says would have required him to pay to his Wife the sum of $10,000 in lieu of equitably dividing their marital property. The Maryland courts addressed the issue of a mehr in 2020 in the Nouri case . The Nouri court elaborated on the basic understanding of a me...