Divorce questions
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
I got married to a woman in May 2013 and she left Jamaica the same year. She did not return to Jamaica for several years, which ultimately led to the end of our relationship. She claims that she filed for divorce in the Bronx County clerk office in New York; however, I’ve never received any documents to verify our divorce. I went to the Supreme Court here, and they had no documentation there either, and informed me that we were still married. My wife proceeded to remarry; however, it was not until 2023 that I filed for divorce and received my decree absolute. My question is, has she committed an offence by not informing the Supreme Court of Jamaica of any proceedings pertaining to our marriage? And is it legal for someone to file for divorce in another country and not file the documentation in Jamaica?
It must have been terrible for you during all those years when you did not know what was happening with your wife and marriage until you decided to act and petitioned the court here for the dissolution of your marriage.
The Supreme Court would have conducted a search of the petitions filed for the relevant years, for the clerk to then conclude that you were still married.
You then report that your wife proceeded to remarry, but you did not say when this occurred. I will therefore answer your two questions, and add some comments.
To your first question, about whether your wife committed an offence by not informing the Supreme Court of Jamaica of any proceedings pertaining to your marriage, the answer is no. I do not know of any law which requires a spouse who files for/obtains the dissolution of hers or his marriage, to inform the Supreme Court here that they have filed for, or that they have obtained a dissolution of their marriage, or in other words obtained a divorce. It is you who should have been informed and in fact you should have been served with a sealed copy of her petition/summons or application, depending in which country it was filed.
I do know for a fact that every country’s divorce law requires that the spouse applying must serve the other spouse and prove such service as the particular country’s law requires. So, if she did in fact obtain a divorce without effecting any service on you, the only conclusion one can draw is that the affidavit of service filed in her proceedings was untrue.
Then again, she could not have obtained a divorce by just filing for divorce in the Bronx County clerk’s office without serving you and proving this and having the judge of the court examine the evidence and granting her divorce. So, she had a legal duty and responsibility to serve you, but no duty or responsibility to inform the Supreme Court of Jamaica, even though your marriage was solemnised in Jamaica.
To your second question, regarding whether it is legal for someone to file for divorce in another country and not file the documentation in Jamaica, the answer is yes, it is legal to do so and this is done very many times when the wife or husband lives in another country.
The law, however, requires that the party filing for the divorce serves the other spouse, and so informs them of the proceedings and gives them the opportunity to not contest or to contest the application, and the applying spouse must prove that the service was effected to the court of the country where the proceedings were filed. Then, after the marriage is dissolved, the decree absolute should be sent to the respondent spouse.
So I hope that since you have obtained your decree absolute following the filing of your petition for dissolution of your marriage, as the judge here must have been satisfied that you had met all the requirements and evidential standards that your marriage had broken up irretrievably, that your life is now on an even path. I hope that my answers to your questions clarified the position for you and I wish you the very best.
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.
