I can’t find my husband

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I got married in 2003 and we separated in the same year. In 2010, I heard my husband was at the May Pen Hospital dying from AIDS and from that year till now I can’t get in contact with him or any of his relatives. I even went to the RGD to see if I could get any information and couldn’t. What can I do?

I could almost hear your exasperation that all your efforts to find out what happened to your husband failed to produce any answers.  Did the May Pen Hospital not have any records about your husband, who was reputed to have been a patient there?  I assume that you contacted the hospital when you heard he was there in 2010, as you say from that year to the date of this your letter, you have not been able to contact him.  Did the hospital answer your enquiry by saying that they had no record of anyone with your husband’s name?  Or did they refuse to answer any of your questions?  As his wife you were entitled above all others to be given information about him. So I therefore hope that it was not the latter.  

You also say that you went to the RGD but could get no information from that office.  You clearly wished to discover whether he had succumbed despite his reputed hospital treatment and I assume that you asked and paid for searches to be done for any record of his death throughout the rest of 2010 and throughout each of the subsequent years.  If such thorough searches were done and there was no record of his death then in all probability, he did not die.

If however, such full and thorough type of searches throughout each of the years were not done, you cannot conclude that he is still alive.

You ask what you can do.  You certainly cannot continue to live in limbo not knowing what is your actual status, so let me answer your question.

I suggest that you consider putting adverts in the newspapers asking that anyone who knows where your husband is or any information relating to him, should call a particular telephone number and relate the information.  You will have to give more than just his name, because two or more persons may have the same name.  You must state his full name and something which can only relate to him and no one else.  Spread the publications over a reasonable period of time.  If you get no positive results from this, it strengthens your position for what you must do.

Was a really thorough day-to-day search through the records at the RGD office done from the beginning of 2010 to date?   If not, it should be done. Try and get even their negative response in writing, as you can use this in your application.

You must apply for a decree of the presumption of the death of your husband and for the dissolution of your marriage.  It seems possible from your letter that you have not seen your husband since you separated in 2003 shortly after your marriage.  If this is so, more than seven years have expired since you last saw him and all your efforts to find him or get news about him since you heard that he was dying of AIDS have been fruitless.  These are good grounds for you to be successful in such an application to the Supreme Court but I would advise you to do the advertisements as well before you apply.  In this way you  ought not to have any difficulty in convincing the court that you have made every effort to find your husband but they have been to no avail.  

I have suggested that you also add the application for the dissolution of your marriage so that your marriage will be terminated.  This is so that in the event that your husband turns out to be alive after the decree of presumption of death has been granted, and he applies for it to be vacated, which would be granted of course, then without a dissolution of your marriage, you will in such a circumstance still be married to him after the presumption of the decree of presumption of death is vacated.  This has happened in cases before and what I have advised is the way the law provides for spouses in your situation to be protected.

So please get yourself a lawyer to assist you to prepare your application for the decrees I have advised you to obtain. In this way you will, once you obtain your decrees, sort out the situation relating to your marriage, which would continue to be treated as existing unless you obtain the decrees I have advised or unless you, of course, obtain clear proof — a certified copy of a certificate of his death. These are the only two ways you can change your status from being married to him to that of a widow and one whose marriage has been dissolved on the basis of your long separation and what amounted to years of his disappearance.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver. com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5.  

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.