Jawed Manjlai v. Nabila Hamid Manjlai

447 S.W.3d 376, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 9480, 2014 WL 4199201
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided August 26, 2014·No. 14-13-00463-CV·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinions

MAJORITY OPINION

KEN WISE, Justice.

Following a jury trial, the trial court awarded Nabila Hamid Manjlai an annulment of her marriage to Jawed Manjlai. In this appeal, Jawed Manjlai contends the trial court’s denials of his motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (“JNOV”) and for new. trial were improper because the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury’s findings. We affirm.

Background

Nabila is a citizen of the United States living in Houston, Texas. Jawed was born in Pakistan and came to the United States on a visitor’s visa in October 2006. Nabila and Jawed were introduced to each other by a marriage broker retained by Jawed and his family. The two met in Houston in November 2007, and with the agreement of both families, were engaged in January 2008. Nabila agreed to sponsor Jawed for [378]*378permanent United States residency (a “green card”) after their marriage.

Nabila and Jawed were married by civil proceedings in Texas on February 1', 2008. Nabila filed a green card application for Jawed on February 6, 2008. In accordance with their faith, the parties married in the Islamic tradition on March 20, 2008. In February 2011, Jawed’s green card application was approved. In July 2011, Na-bila learned from others in her community that Jawed had terminated their marriage through a ceremony according to Islamic tradition.

Nabila- filed this action in Harris County District Court in July 2011, seeking an annulment of her civil marriage to Jawed on the grounds that Jawed used fraud to induce her into the marriage. At trial, Nabila presented evidence to show that Jawed entered into the marriage solely as part of a scheme to obtain a green card for himself and to induce Nabila’s family to provide various material benefits to himself and his family.

Testimony showed that Jawed and his family were in the United States illegally at the time they retained the marriage broker. Nabila testified that Jawed’s family campaigned for a civil marriage immediately after the engagement, followed by filing a green card application. Jawed’s family requested a six- to nine-month delay for the religious marriage, which Nabi-la’s family rejected. After their religious marriage, Nabila moved with Jawed across the country to Boston, then to Atlanta. Nabila testified that Jawed’s parents moved in with them into their one-bedroom apartment in Boston shortly after the move.

Nabila testified that, during this time, Jawed never showed her any expressions of love. Furthermore, Nabila testified that Jawed never bought her flowers or presents. Nabila explained that it felt like they “were just roommates,” and that Jawed’s family would frequently whisper in other parts of the apartment where she was not able to hear. Due to frequent fighting and arguments between Nabila and Jawed’s mother, Nabila expressed her desire to move back to Houston with her family. Shortly after Nabila filed a portion of Jawed’s green card application that required proof of their residence together, Jawed bought Nabila a ticket to return to Houston alone.

The evidence also showed several episodes in which Nabila’s family loaned money to Jawed’s family that was never repaid, as well as jewelry that was never returned. Nabila and her father, Abdul Zakaria, testified that, according to Pakistani tradition, the Zakaria family advanced a $20,000 loan to the Manjlai family to pay for their portion of the wedding costs. Shortly after the civil wedding ceremony, Jawed was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Abdul testified that the Zakaria family loaned $16,500 to the Manjlai family for attorney’s fees, a bond deposit, and filing fees on Jawed’s behalf with the expectation and assurance that these sums would be repaid. As part of the Islamic wedding ceremony, the Zakarias entrusted Jawed’s mother with over $25,000 in gold jewelry that belonged to Nabila. At the time of trial, none of the above amounts had been repaid and none of the jewelry had been returned to Nabila or the Zakaria family.

Evidence at trial showed that Nabila had applied for a student loan from Chase Bank about sixth months after the marriage, but Jawed later told Nabila she had been denied the loan. Nabila testified that she subsequently learned the loan had been approved for $2,500, although Jawed had cashed the check without telling her.

[379]*379After Jawed’s green card application was approved in February 2011, he traveled from Atlanta to Houston to retrieve the card from Nabila and her family. While Jawed was in Houston, Abdul Zaka-ria directed him to bring back or replace Nabila’s gold, to repay money that was loaned to the Manjlai family, to ensure his parents moved home to Pakistan, and to be a better person. Similarly, Nabila asked Jawed to sign a hand-written contract stating that, among other things, Jawed would never lie to Nabila and would never apply for a green card for his family members. Nabila threatened to leave the marriage if Jawed did not comply with this new set of promises. Jawed signed the document on July 5, 2011. Nabila testified that Jawed avoided picking up her calls for the next five days. Text message conversations in the record reflect that Jawed repeatedly assured Nabila that he would meet Abdul Zakaria’s demands.

Nabila testified that Jawed texted her on July 10, 2011, stating “it’s all over.” Three days after the text, Nabila learned through a community member that Jawed had divorced her according to Islamic tradition. Nabila testified that her reputation was damaged in her community when Jawed divorced her. Furthermore, Nabila testified that she first realized the marriage was a fraud when Jawed divorced her without explanation.

Finally, testimony revealed that Jawed had discussed marriage and a subsequent green card application with another woman, Anam Syed, shortly before he agreed to marry Nabila. Syed testified that she met Jawed through an online dating website, and had informally agreed to marry him before his engagement to Nabila. Additionally, Syed testified that Jawed understood she was an American citizen, and that the two spoke “in detail” about the possibilities of Syed petitioning for Jawed’s green card. Testimony at trial showed that neither Jawed nor his family disclosed to Nabila that Jawed was informally engaged to Syed.

At the end of the trial, the jury reached a verdict determining Jawed had used fraud to induce Nabila into the marriage and that Nabila had stopped cohabitating with Jawed after discovering the fraud. Jawed’s motions for a JNOV and for a new trial were denied. This appeal followed.

Issues and Analysis

Jawed contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court’s denial of his motion for JNOV and motion for new trial. Because Jawed has not preserved error as to his factual sufficiency argument, we address only his legal sufficiency argument.

I. Standard of Review and Applicable Law

The trial court’s denial of a motion for JNOV is reviewed under a legal sufficiency standard. Manon v. Solis, 142 S.W.3d 380, 387 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2004, pet. denied). When reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion for new trial, we generally apply the abuse-of-discretion standard. Memon v. Shaikh, 401 S.W.3d 407

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Jawed Manjlai v. Nabila Hamid Manjlai, 447 S.W.3d 376, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 9480, 2014 WL 4199201 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

447 S.W.3d 376 (Jawed Manjlai v. Nabila Hamid Manjlai) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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