Marriage by proxy not recognised

The Civil Court has backed a decision by the Director of Public Registry not to recognise a marriage made in Syria between a Maltese woman and a Syrian who were both in Malta at the time.

Melisa Susan Pisani and Modar Alhousain had sued the director, insisting that he should recognise the marriage officiated in Damascus on May 7, 2009. The couple had a daughter.

The director pleaded that he had not registered the marriage because both the man and the woman were in Malta when their marriage was officiated in Syria, although the marriage documents bore their signature.

Furthermore, if the marriage was made by power of attorney issued in Malta, that required prior approval by the director on the basis of serious circumstances.

Furthermore, it had resulted that the Syrian man's visa to live in Malta had expired.

The court confirmed that the man and the woman were in Malta when their marriage took place in Syria. For reasons that were not given in the evidence to the court, the couple, instead of marrying in Malta, signed and sent the necessary documents for their marriage to take place in Syria. The man was represented in Syria by his mother while a lawyer represented the Maltese woman.

The court observed that Maltese law provided for marriage by proxy but this had to be done with approval by the Marriage Registrar. This could happen when one of the spouses was in Malta and the other could not be here for reasons which the registrar considered as being justified. Furthermore, the power of attorney had to be authenticated by an authorised person.

All this showed, the court said, that the legislator was not keen on marriages by proxy except in exceptional circumstances.

In this case, both spouses were in Malta and the court therefore saw no serious reason why the marriage needed to take place in another country by proxy. It was clear that there was a reason why the spouses decided to act in this way.

The court therefore turned down the request of the couple and found in favour of the Director of Public Registry.