2019-UNAT-912, Clemente
UNAT considered Article 34 of the UNJSPF Regulations which provides that a widow’s benefit will be payable to the surviving spouse of a participant who was entitled to a retirement benefit at the date of his death if she was married to the deceased at the date of his separation from service and remained married to him until his death. In accordance with general principles of private international law, the validity of a marriage must be assessed and determined in accordance with the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated, being the law of the Philippines. The Supreme Court of the Philippines has ruled on various occasions that although a second marriage might be presumed to be legally void if it was celebrated while a first marriage was still subsisting, it will be presumptively valid until declared a nullity by a court. Illegal juridical acts are often deemed to exist in municipal legal systems until they are set aside by a court in appropriate proceedings because they have legal consequences that cannot be overlooked. A marriage may be hypothetically a nullity, but remains effective and is, in reality, valid until a judicial declaration to the contrary. UNAT found that there was no evidence that the staff member’s marriage had been the subject of any legal proceedings for a declaration of nullity in the Philippines. The marriage is accordingly recognized by the competent authorities of the Philippines. Her presumptively valid marriage was extant at the date her late husband separated from service and she remained so married to him until his death. Accordingly, UNAT set aside the decision of the Standing Committee of the UNJSPB and ordered that the staff member be paid a widow’s benefit under Article 34.
A staff member employed with UNOG married her late husband in the Philippines in March 1995 and remained married to him for 20 years until his death. Her late husband participated in the Fund from October 1999 to November 2015 as a staff member of WIPO, and he had listed her as his spouse throughout his participation in the Fund. Both WIPO and the UN reported their marital status to the Fund, and Switzerland issued them residential status as spouses. However, his previous marriage was not annulled until August 1996, about a year after his marriage to the staff member. Divorce is not legal in the Philippines. The only manner in which a marriage can end, other than through the death of a spouse, is by annulment. The Fund informed the staff member that based on its review of Philippine law, her marriage to her late husband appeared to be void as bigamous and her marriage was not legal because it pre-dated the annulment of her late husband’s first marriage. Accordingly, the Fund rejected the staff member’s request for a widow’s benefit under Article 34 of its Regulations. The staff member appealed, claiming that her marital relationship with her late husband constituted a common law marriage and that under Philippine law a void or voidable marriage is deemed to be valid until declared otherwise in judicial proceedings and her marriage has not been the subject of any legal proceedings for a declaration of nullity.
A widow’s benefit is payable to the surviving spouse of a participant who was entitled to a retirement benefit at the date of his death if she was married to the deceased at the date of his separation from service and remained married to him until his death. In accordance with general principles of private international law, the validity of a marriage must be assessed and determined in accordance with the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated.
Only financial compensation; Only financial compensation.