Is my husband a Bigamist?

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I have been married for almost two years now. However, my husband migrated to another country and has remarried without divorcing me. Or should I say, I don’t know if he processed a divorce in that country.

He was married [to someone else] before me, and when I checked the decree absolute that was used, according to the Supreme Court the document is null and void. I was told that to annul the marriage, I would have to go before the Supreme Court judge.

However, I am scared because he threatened me, saying that if anything that I do causes him to be sent back to Jamaica, the repercussions will be bad.

Do you think it is better to just file for a divorce rather than doing an annulment?

I was sorry to read your letter, and I can imagine the pain and confusion you must have felt when you discovered the messy situation your ‘husband’ left you in.

It seems that you married a person who was married before you to someone he purported he had divorced. Yet you say that you have since discovered that his decree absolute is purportedly null and void. You say you learned this from someone in the Supreme Court (I will comment on this later). You then say that your ‘husband’ has, in the country he emigrated to after you and he got married, also gone through a ceremony of marriage with someone else and you have no idea whether your marriage to him was dissolved at all. This last fact would render any purported divorce proceeding terminating your marriage very questionable, because you are supposed to be served with his petition for the dissolution of your marriage.

In addition, from what you say, he clearly is fully aware that he has acted contrary to law and societal norms, because he has threatened to harm you if any of your actions to be free of him causes him to be deported to Jamaica. He certainly would not anticipate the possibility of his being returned to Jamaica, if he had not knowingly and intentionally acted contrary to law.

As to the information you received about his decree absolute relating to his first marriage being null and void from the Supreme Court, I assume one of the clerks in the Supreme Court Registry told you so. You have not said why this was stated to you. Was it that there was no record of it, or of any proceedings whatsoever? Or was it a forged document?

Anyway, be that as it may, if he was not divorced from his first wife according to law, then your marriage would fall squarely within the provisions in the Matrimonial Causes Act of a ground for which the Supreme Court can pronounce that your marriage is void. This is because his first wife (or the one before you — one cannot say how many he has had) was still living at the time of your marriage and there had been no dissolution of her marriage to your ‘husband’.

Once this is proved, even though the court has not yet declared your marriage to be void by the pronouncement of a decree of nullity, it is in fact void and it cannot be validated.

This being the case, you would really have no choice but to apply for a decree of nullity. However, whether you so apply or should apply for a divorce would depend on whether or not you can in fact prove that his first marriage had not in law been properly dissolved. The opinion or statement of someone in the Registry will not be sufficient. This is why I asked the questions I posed above. Would this person give evidence in nullity proceedings on your behalf? Could he or she qualify as an expert in that regard? And would he or she be able to prove that your ‘husband’s’ decree absolute is in fact null and void to the satisfaction of the judge? Can you prove that his first wife was in fact alive at the time of your wedding/marriage? Remember, only a Supreme Court judge can make such a pronouncement for it to be legally effective.

So I can only answer your question in this way because I do not have sufficient facts. If you cannot prove that his purported divorce is in fact null and void, and ought to be so declared in law, then you should proceed to file a petition for divorce. If you can prove it, then you must proceed with a petition for a decree of nullity.

One thing I must clear up for you is that you do not have to actually appear before a judge if you do not wish to do so. You can have your petition dealt with on the documents filed on your behalf by the judge. This is so because of the Matrimonial Proceedings Rules which became effective in September 2006. You therefore do not need to be afraid that you must go before a judge.

As to his threat, I do not think you should be unduly concerned about it, because it is highly unlikely that either Jamaica or the country he resides in would go to the expense of extradition and deportation proceedings being undertaken against him.

You should, therefore, without fear, move to free yourself from this person as soon as possible. Please retain a lawyer to act for you and move ahead. Good luck.

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. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.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.

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. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.

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.