INFO YOU CAN USE: Presuming death in a divorce application
ANY married person who alleges that reasonable grounds exist for supposing that their spouse is dead may present a petition to the court to have it presumed that the other party is dead, and to have the marriage dissolved.
If the court is satisfied that such reasonable grounds exist, it may make a decree of presumption of death and dissolution of the marriage.
In any such proceedings, the fact that for a period of seven years or upwards the other party to the marriage has been continually absent from the petitioner and the petitioner has no reason to believe that the other party has been living within that time, shall be evidence that the person is dead, until the contrary is proved.
For overseas petitioners, a decree of presumption of death and dissolution of marriage effected in accordance with the law of a foreign country shall be recognised as valid in Jamaica:-
(a) if the petitioner was, at the relevant date:
(i) a national of,
(ii) domiciled in; or
(iii) ordinarily resident in the country in which the decree was obtained.
