Marriage of Snowden and Campeanu
Petitioner Norris Snowden is a 55-year-old American. Respondent Simona N. Campeanu is a Romanian citizen in her early forties. She first met Snowden via the Internet in 2006. Snowden and Campeanu got married in 2009. They did not begin living together until December 2010, after Campeanu obtained the necessary visa and left Romania with her two daughters, moving into Snowden’s home in San Jose. The couple lived together for less than two months before they separated permanently in January 2011.
On March 3, 2011, Snowden filed a petition to annul the marriage, citing Family Code section 2210, subdivision (d), which provides for annulment in the case of fraud. Snowden claimed that Campeanu refused to have sex with him after they married and had concealed from him the fact that she is unfertile. Snowden maintained that Campeanu’s true motive for marrying him was to obtain a green card, allowing her to reside in the United States.
Campeanu denied the fraud allegation and petitioned for dissolution of the marriage. The trial court bifurcated the annulment issue from the dissolution issue and the annulment matter was tried first. The evidence consisted primarily of the testimony of the two parties. The trial court, as the finder of fact, concluded that Snowden had failed to carry his burden of proof and denied the petition. Snowden appeals. He argues that the evidence supports his claim of fraud but he disregards substantial conflicting evidence upon which the trial court relied. Accordingly, we shall affirm.[1]
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