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Foreign Law in American Courts

Texas Court Refuses to Enforce Pakistan Court's Divorce Judgment, in $100M-Marital-Community-Asset Case

Eugene Volokh | 9.25.2026 1:51 PM

From Azhar v. Choudhri, decided today by the Texas Supreme Court:

A man who has lived in Houston since he was three years old, who built several businesses in Texas, and who accumulated over $100 million in community assets during a Texas-domiciled marriage, traveled to Pakistan to obtain a unilateral divorce from his wife.

He did so without her knowledge or consent, using an Islamic legal mechanism called talaq. His wife was not served with process. She was not heard. She received no notice at all until two years after the divorce was final.

In an unbroken line of decisions originating before the ratification of our Constitution, we have recognized the fundamental "principle of natural justice which requires a person to have notice of a suit before he can be conclusively bound by its result." As a result, efforts to give notice "must include inquiries that someone who really wants to find the defendant would make." Gamesmanship designed to "hide the ball" and prevent the defendant from learning of the lawsuit is inconsistent with our foundational notions of justice.

The Pakistani divorce judgment was issued contrary to these principles. Accordingly, it cannot be afforded comity….

Husband and Wife married in Pakistan in 2008 when Wife was eighteen and Husband was twenty-eight. Husband had been living in Houston since age three but had traveled to Pakistan to find a wife through an arranged marriage. Wife came to Houston in 2010 after obtaining a visa.

Throughout the course of their marriage, the couple amassed over $100 million in community assets. At the same time, Wife alleges that Husband continuously abused her physically and emotionally. In 2012, Husband sent Wife back to Pakistan, ostensibly to renew her visa. But this turned out to be a ruse: In January 2013, Husband divorced her, without her knowledge, through a talaq proceeding in Pakistan.

"A divorce........

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