Second marriage not considered legal

beya2009

Hi I have a friend that just asked me to look into this. She's considering taking legal advice but I told her sensible option would be to try the forum first.

She's African but has lived in Ireland for a while now and was fortunate enough to be naturalized years back. She married an Irish man back in Africa while he was already married to an Irish woman. They then lived in Ireland for several years later and he was in a long legal battle with his other wife for nearly 10 years which finally got concluded with the court granting a divorce. Unfortunately he passed away a year later.

Apparently under Irish law my friend is not considered the legal widow because she married a guy already married from another country. He would have had to divorce his Irish wife and then marry my friend for her to be considered the legal wife.

I'm no legal expert but I did tell her it sounds correct to me but I thought people here might have a better idea. To me they obviously knew they couldn't marry here in Ireland which is probably why they married abroad.

Any thoughts? I don't think different jurisdiction has any bearing in this case.

seamus

In general, any foreign marriage is legal in Ireland once it is legal in its home country. Polygamy is one of the obvious exclusions, though some have found novel ways to play the system.

However, your friend's case is complicated (or maybe simplified) by the fact that he is Irish and his original marriage presumably took place in Ireland.

Her marriage will never be recognised in Irish law because her husband was already married at the time.

If it's a matter of wills and her entitlements, cohabiting partners have been given stronger rights in recent years, so even though she was not legally his wife, she may be able to lay claim to part of his estate and/or property rights for where she lives. A solicitor will be able to advise her.

schemingbohemia

Presumably no will was made? Because that's where you should start.

beya2009

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Presumably no will was made? Because that's where you should start.

Oh good point will pas it onto her.

beya2009

seamus wrote: »

In general, any foreign marriage is legal in Ireland once it is legal in its home country. Polygamy is one of the obvious exclusions, though some have found novel ways to play the system.

However, your friend's case is complicated (or maybe simplified) by the fact that he is Irish and his original marriage presumably took place in Ireland.

Her marriage will never be recognised in Irish law because her husband was already married at the time.

If it's a matter of wills and her entitlements, cohabiting partners have been given stronger rights in recent years, so even though she was not legally his wife, she may be able to lay claim to part of his estate and/or property rights for where she lives. A solicitor will be able to advise her.

Very interesting. She was unsuccessful in getting the widows contributory pension as they advised her she was not considered to be the legal widow.

beya2009

Just for more details I forgot to provide in my original post. My friend and the deceased cohabited for several years in Ireland and had children.

She asked me about this and I didn't have a clue so putting it here:

Is there a precedent where if one is separated with his wife and got married outside the jurisdiction and applied for divorce when the divorce act was introduced and the judge granted the divorce a few years later...the person that married outside the jurisdiction, do they have right as the legal spouse?

seamus

No. The marriage is only valid if it was valid at the time that it was initiated.

There's no "pending" state where a marriage suddenly comes into force when a previous one is dissolved. The marriage must be valid at the time it was contracted, otherwise it's completely null.

There was a recent case where an immigrant (a refugee I think) brought his second wife into the country. When she was granted residency, he then applied to have his first wife join him in Ireland according to the legislation. The state fought the charge on the basis that you can't have two wives therefore this woman had no right to enter the country. However the court found that it was the first marriage which was legal, and therefore the first wife had a legal entitlement to join him in Ireland.

The marriage to the second woman was therefore deemed illegitimate, however as she was already granted residency the state couldn't send her back.

This was functionally just trickery. The second marriage was never legal in Ireland, but the authorities were not aware that it was a second marriage.

In this scenario, your friend is the "second woman".

beya2009

seamus wrote: »

No. The marriage is only valid if it was valid at the time that it was initiated.

There's no "pending" state where a marriage suddenly comes into force when a previous one is dissolved. The marriage must be valid at the time it was contracted, otherwise it's completely null.

There was a recent case where an immigrant (a refugee I think) brought his second wife into the country. When she was granted residency, he then applied to have his first wife join him in Ireland according to the legislation. The state fought the charge on the basis that you can't have two wives therefore this woman had no right to enter the country. However the court found that it was the first marriage which was legal, and therefore the first wife had a legal entitlement to join him in Ireland.

The marriage to the second woman was therefore deemed illegitimate, however as she was already granted residency the state couldn't send her back.

This was functionally just trickery. The second marriage was never legal in Ireland, but the authorities were not aware that it was a second marriage.

In this scenario, your friend is the "second woman".

Okay thanks...that was extremely helpful. Sounds pretty concrete to me. She was thinking about appealing the decision from the widows contributory pension but I don't see much point. They should have waited until the divorce to marry.

Victor

Regarding wills, where was the deceased domiciled?

beya2009

Victor wrote: »

Regarding wills, where was the deceased domiciled?

He passed away abroad while on holiday but he cohabited with her for nearly 20 years in Ireland.