Obsession with religious group affected man's decision to marry

The Court of Appeal has confirmed a judgment delivered by the First Hall of the Civil Court which found that a marriage was null and void on the basis of the husband's lack of discretion of judgment.

The husband filed his writ before the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming that his marriage, celebrated in October 1995, was null and void.

The wife appealed from the judgment to the Court of Appeal composed of Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Anton Depasquale and Mr Justice Albert J. Magri.

The Marriage Act, the court noted, provided for a ruling of nullity of marriage where there was a serious defect of discretion of judgment on the part of one or both of the spouses.

Thus, the party alleging the nullity had to prove that, at the moment of exchanging matrimonial consent, one of the spouses lacked, to a serious degree, the faculty to properly evaluate the object of the consent to the marriage.

This meant that one of the parties had to have insufficient maturity to make a free choice about the marriage. This did not mean that one of the parties had to lack affection towards the other spouse or lack attraction but that the party had to have insufficient maturity.

The lack of discretion of judgment, in terms of law, was not lack of thought or reflection, nor was it the fact of making a wrong decision. The Court of Appeal added that neither was lack of discretion of judgment an element of indecision or of doubt about the choice to marriage.

There had to be evidence of a psychological incapacity (though not necessarily of a psychological anomaly) that rendered the spouse unable to recognise, reflect and decide freely on the object of matrimonial consent.

In this particular case the husband was a member of the religious group known as Christian Fellowship as was the wife. The husband had been a member of the group since he was 17 years old and there was no doubt that he had taken this very seriously and even had ambitions to reach a high level within the group.

The court added that it clearly resulted that for the husband membership in the group of born again Christians meant everything to him and dictated the manner in which he lived.

One of the suggestions made to the husband by his superiors in the group was that he should preferably marry a woman who was also a member in this group. The husband had taken this very seriously and felt bound by it even though it was not a sine qua non condition.

The court pointed out that the husband could not contemplate marrying a woman who was not a member of the Christian Fellowship and, notwithstanding his natural attraction towards the opposite sex, he felt bound by the group's directive that sexual relations could only take place within a marriage.

It was for this reason that the husband had married the wife, as he felt that with her he would be able to keep faith with the precepts of the group.

All this impeded the husband from making objective choices as he was totally infatuated with the group which certainly did not leave him room for manoeuvring.

The court found that the husband's subconscious and conscious was such that for him there was no choice save that of observing the group's precepts.

The husband's state of mind at the time of the marriage was so shackled and vague he could not have the freedom of choice and evaluation to realise the obligations of marriage.

The marriage, as far as the husband was concerned, was secondary to his principal aims.

In its judgment the Court of Appeal found that the first court had concluded that the husband was incapable of entering into a marriage and that this was due to his obsession with the religious group and his ambitions to advance within the group.

The appellate court added that it did not lightly overturn the conclusions reached by the first court and in this case it concluded that the first court had made a substantially correct evaluation of the evidence produced.

The court therefore confirmed the judgment of the First Hall of the Civil Court.