Advert

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.

Advert

11 Comments

Post comment

Comments are submitted under the express understanding and condition that the editor may, and is authorised to, disclose any/all of the above personal information to any person or entity requesting the information for the purposes of legal action on grounds that such person or entity is aggrieved by any comment so submitted.

At this time your comment will not be displayed immediately upon posting. Please allow some time for your comment to be moderated before it is displayed.

Your User Profile is incomplete.
Please click here to complete your profile before posting comments.

Peter Korsten

Nov 4th 2010, 08:23

Perhaps they went on a honeymoon to Malta before getting married? :)

Daniel Goggi

Nov 4th 2010, 10:00

LOL. sorry but I cannot help but agree with your comments! Good one.

melissa alhousain

Jun 21st 2011, 21:10

as a matter a fact we did thank u

Sean Grima

Nov 3rd 2010, 19:06

considering that one of the parties is a maltese person, there is no place for arguments about any cultural superiority!

melissa alhousain

Jun 21st 2011, 21:13

yes and the court also allowed us re marry here in malta. and the so called alien is my husband and is here in malta.............

J Farrugia

Nov 3rd 2010, 17:27

x'ghandha x'taqsam haga m'ohra. Veru bla argumenti serji.

Christian Sciberras

Nov 8th 2010, 20:24

Fiha u nghid. Jekk hemm problemi serji bhal down fil-ligi kurrenti, h naqbzu niddeciedu fuq divorzju? Mela tlaqna jew?

Advert
Advert