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In re the Marriage of Samuels da Fonseca Silva
Rosanne M. Samuels da Fonseca Silva, n/k/a Rosanne Marie Samuels, Petitioner-Appellant
Daniel Samuels da Fonseca Silva, Respondent-Appellee
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Mustapha Samuels El Khayat, n/k/a Mustapha El Khayat, Petitioner-Appellee
Rosanne Samuels El Khayat, Respondent-Appellant
Attorney for Appellant
Alexander S. Momany
Attorney for Appellee
Cory R. Thein, for appellee Mustapha El Khayat
Daniel Samuels da Fonseca Silva, self-represented appellee
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Monica Zrinyi Ackley, Judge. AFFIRMED ON BOTH APPEALS AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS ON THE APPEAL OF THE DISSOLUTION DECREE. Heard by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ. Opinion by Langholz, J. (13 pages)
Rosanne Samuels appeals the district court’s denial of her petition to vacate a decree dissolving her marriage with one man and its issuance of a decree dissolving another marriage with Mustapha El Khayat rather than granting an annulment. OPINION HOLDS: Samuels correctly argues that a petition to vacate a decree as void for improper service need not be made within one year. But even so, she is judicially estopped from making such a challenge to her first dissolution decree because it was issued at her request and based on her position in that proceeding that she made proper service. The district court thus correctly denied her petition to vacate that first decree and her request for an annulment rather than a dissolution of the second marriage. We award appellate attorney fees to El Khayat, deny Samuels’s request for fees, and remand with directions for the district court to decide the reasonable amount of fees.
