The claimant and her husband had been married at a Sikh temple, and lived together for many years before his death. The temple had not been accredited for marriages, and the Secretary of State resisted payment of benefits to the claimant as a widow, saying that she had not been married.
Held: The claimant’s appeal succeeded. There was nothing to make the marriage void, and there was a presumption of a valid marriage where the parties had gone through a ceremony and had lived together on that basis. The fact discovered many years later that the ceremony was defective would not mean that the couple were not married. This was supported by old common law rules. The validity of a marriage should be upheld wherever possible: ‘there is nothing to suggest that the Sikh marriage ceremony and the consequences thereof in the eyes of the Sikh religious authorities was other than such a voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. In my view that ‘marriage’ is validated by the common law presumption from long cohabitation, in pursuance of the policy of the law that, in the absence of the clearest possible reason why there should not be such a presumption, a ceremony of ‘marriage’ bona fide entered by parties who thereafter who live monogamously and bring up children of the union should be respected and accorded the proper legal status of marriage. ‘
Times 28-Oct-1999, [1999] EWCA Civ 3008
Bailii, Bailii
Marriage Act 1949
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Sastry Velaider Aronegary v Sembecutty Vaigalie 1881
There had been ceremony of marriage which was prima facie valid. There was therefore a presumption of marriage. . .
Cited – Bibi v Chief Adjudication Officer CA 25-Jun-1997
A widow from a polygamous marriage is not entitled to the widowed mother’s allowance, despite the payment of national insurance contributions by the deceased father. There must have been a valid English marriage, according to the lex loci. . .
Cited – Hyde v Hyde and Woodmansee 20-Mar-1866
A marriage contracted in a country where polygamy is lawful, between a man and a woman who profess a faith which allows polygamy, is not a, marriage as understood in Christendom; and although it is a valid marriage by the lex loci, and at the time . .
Cited – Re Green, Noyes v Pitkin 1909
There had been a foreign marriage ceremony. The court applied the presumption of marriage from long cohabitation without ceremony. . .
Cited – Re Shephard, George v Thyer 1904
The parties gave evidence that the only ceremony of marriage through which they went took place in France. The case was argued and decided on the basis, accepted by the learned judge, that expert evidence showed that the ceremony could not have been . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Family, Benefits
Updated: 13 January 2022; Ref: scu.79037