(I) E v (W) E

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice Murphy
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1985
• Neutral Citation: 1983 WJSC-HC 2099
• Judgment citation (vLex): [1984] 6 JIC 0104
• Court: High Court
• Date: 01 January 1985

(H.C.)

I.E

and

W.E

Failure to comply with formalities - Marriage (Ireland) Act, 1844 (c.81), s. 49.

The parties, an estranged German couple, underwent a ceremony of marriage at the Lutheran Church in Dublin in 1963. The husband, here the respondent in a maintenance application brought by the wife, sought to establish that he and his wife had not been lawfully married. The record of the Dublin marriage showed that a certificate had been produced to the officiating pastor stating (in accordance with the German legal requirement) that the parties had previously been married by a civil act in East Berlin. By producing his passport and otherwise, the husband showed that he had not been in East Germany at the date of the alleged civil marriage. It was further established that the Dublin Lutheran Church was not, at the date of the Irish ceremony registered for the celebration of marriages; that no statutory licence or certificate was issued to authorise the ceremony; and that no banns were published. The record did not establish that the Dublin marriage was duly witnessed, although the wife asserted it had been. Held by Murphy J., adjourning the appeal to allow the parties to consider their positions following his findings, that, 1, the husband had discharged the heavy onus of proving that there had been no civil ceremony of marriage in...