SCOTX Hears Guardianship Divorce Case to Open Term

The Supreme Court of Texas kicked off its 2024-25 term this week with a highly contested divorce case involving questions of whether a guardian may initiate a divorce proceeding on behalf of an incapacitated ward and the effect of the ward’s subsequent death on the wife’s appeal of the divorce decree.

Under the court’s thorough questioning, the arguments veered from the dry text of statutes and case law to the existential meaning of marriage vows. The case featured practitioners at the height of their craft and covered the saga of a once powerful man whose dementia had rendered him unable to manage his personal affairs.