Our family has found itself in the midst of an outrageous situation concerning the divorce of my in-laws. I will briefly outline the situation, as follows.
The parents of my husband have decided to divorce. They are both in their upper sixties, one is ill with emphysema. They both have assets. The wife has stock options from an inheritance from her parents, that are solely hers. The worth of which I will not post, however, it is fairly substantial.
The problem:
The husband claimed he wanted to divorce. My mother-in-law wishes to move near her son, we live several states away. My husband made an appointment with an attorney in the town where the in-laws live, and got on a plane to assist his mother during the process.(She no longer drives.)
Upon his arrival, the situation has become quite volatile. He has only been there for twelve hours! The husband claims to know nothing about my husband going there to assist his mother. I personnally spoke to him myself and he most definately stated he wished to divorce and asked when my husband’s flight was arriving. Worse yet, his behavior is extremely out of line; my husband says it takes all of his strength to keep from “punching him.” I believe the husband is deliberately pushing my husband’s buttons in order to have him removed and legally banned from the premises. If this were to occur, his mother will have noone there on her behalf. The illness has somewhat clouded her mentation at times and she definately needs someone to mentor for her.
The question:
If the wife leaves the state without any legal seperation or divorce is this considered abandonment?
How should she now proceed, since her husband is obviously not going to cooperate as he originally said he would?