Two marriages and a questionable divorce

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

In June of 2001 I got married in Jamaica at a hotel. As if that marriage wasn’t enough, we ended up trying to please some of our other family members with an Atlanta, Georgia ceremony. Therefore, within 10 days there were two services sealed by two pastors. Since we had already filed for a Georgia marriage licence, the state filing office guided us to use it. This is how we ended up with marriage certificate number two. The Jamaican pastor made it clear that the Jamaica ceremony was legally binding.

However, at present date, our Georgia certificate is voided. Because of domestic violence, a judge (in North Carolina) has signed our dissolution of marriage. Nonetheless, we were married on two different dates, two different countries, by two very qualified disciples of the Lord. Does my local court need to dissolve the legal union from Jamaica too?

Marriages in Jamaica are governed by the provisions of the Marriage Act. It provides that they must be solemnised between the parties by a civil registrar, deputy civil registrar or a marriage officer. The last may also be a minister of religion.

It also provides that if parties who have contracted a marriage before one of the above also wish to have a separate religious service as well, they must produce their certified copy of the register of marriage certificate to the religious minister who may perform the religious service, if he thinks fit. The section goes on to state that nothing in the reading or the celebration of the religious service shall supersede or invalidate the marriage contracted before the marriage officer or civil registrar. It also states that this ceremony cannot be registered under the Marriage Act as a marriage.

You can, of course, have your marriage solemnised by a religious minister or pastor who is also a marriage officer and have both the legal civil and the religious ceremonies together. This is what you seemed to have done in a hotel here in Jamaica, and it is clear that you were handed a certified copy of the register after the registration of your marriage had been duly completed by the marriage officer who solemnised the marriage.

You acknowledge the legality of your said marriage and say that after you returned home, you and your husband permitted yourselves to be persuaded to go through another marriage ceremony in Atlanta, Georgia. You say that you were guided by the filing office that as you had already filed for a marriage licence and had it, to use it. That you did and obtained your second marriage certificate.

You state further that your Georgia ‘marriage’ has been dissolved by a judge there because of the occurrence of domestic violence and the certificate was voided. You ask whether you need to dissolve your Jamaican marriage. The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, strictly speaking, having been legally married before you went through the ceremony in Georgia, the legality of that ceremony is questionable.

Since you were already married at the time of your ceremony in Atlanta, neither you nor your husband should have made the solemn declaration that you did not know of any legal impediment why you shouldn’t have been joined in matrimony. This is one of two legal declarations required to be spoken by both parties to the marriage.

You are still lawfully married to your husband and must therefore file a petition for your Jamaican marriage to be dissolved. You have not stated how long you have been married. Our Matrimonial Causes Act requires your marriage to have been in existence for two years to enable you to petition the court to dissolve it, otherwise you must obtain the leave of the court to file within the two years. You must also have been separated and have lived separate and apart for a continuous period of not less than 12 months before the filing of the petition for a decree of dissolution. Then you must remember that the grounds for dissolution of marriage has to be that it has irretrievably broken down.

Yes, you can apply for the dissolution of your Jamaican marriage either in Georgia or here in Jamaica. Please proceed to legally end your marriage so that you do not have legal complications later in your life if you fail to do so.

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 toallwoman@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.