RIGHTS OF REGISTERED MARRIAGE

There are many lessons to be learned at a workshop
of the Civil Registry Department of Papua New Guinea.

The keylesson is the importance of registering births,
marriages and deaths. With no registration, people
may have no legal right to live with the support of
Government, except the basic human rights.

Take a case from a Marriage Celebrants’ Workshop

in Port Moresby. A man married a woman and lived
with her for several years. They were legally married
in a civil celebrant ceremony and given a marriage
certificate.

Many years later, they separated and the marriage was
broken.The man lived with another woman in de facto
relationship who bore him children and lived with him
for 12 years. During that time, they owned a beautiful
house. Then the man died.

Second woman was amazed that the first wife arrived
and claimed that the house belonged to her as she was
the wife with a marriage certificate.

The matter went to Court and a decision made that the
first wife had the right to jointly own the property of her
husband to whom she was still married.

The de facto wife did not have a right to the house even
though she had lived with him for so long. First wife was
the registered spouse.

We may see the problem with men or women who pay

to NASFUND or Nambawan Super for superannuation.
If the man or woman dies and marriage is not registered,
there may be problems with who is entitled to the super
-annuation payout.

What if he and his wife have not registered their marriage
through a civil celebrants ceremony or a church wedding?
What if the wife finds that the man’s father claims to be
the next of kin and takes the matter to Court?