War-time Wedding Ruled Invalid

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30051, 8 February 1963, Page 13

War-time Wedding Ruled Invalid

(Nsw Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 7. A marriage in a refugee camp in Italy at the end of the Second World War was invalid, said a judgment delivered in the Supreme Court at Wellington today by Mr Justice McGregor in a divorce petition.

The petitioner was George Kulah Kaczmarski, a radio technician, and the respondent Fernanda Kulah Kacxmarski. The petitioner sought a divorce on the grounds of his wife’s alleged adultery, and he further claimed £ damages against the correspondent and for custody of the children of the marriage. Mrs Kaczmarski denied she was lawfully married and asked that the ceremony of marriage which took place be declared null and void.

The judgment said that the attack on the validity of the marriage was based on two grounds—that the marriage in Italy was not in accordance with the requirements of Italian law and that, in any event, it was a bigamous one, and therefore void. Had the ceremony in Italy taken place in a church or before the civil authorities it would be registered, and it appeared that records were kept in the registration office of the marital circumstances

of all Italian subjects, said the judgment. The prior marriage of Mrs Kaczmarski would have been discovered and she would have been liable for prosecution for bigamy. That appeared to have been well recognised by her, and the

Court was satisfied that the ceremony in the refugee camp and the absence of registration was a device to avoid disclosure of the tru« situation to the civil authorities.

The law of Italy was positive and it required that there must be a civil ceremony of marriage or registration by an authorised priest. The judgment said there was evidence of reputation, coupled with evidence that Mrs Kaczmarski in registering the births of the children, and also in making complaints for maintenance and guardianship, had acknowledged her marriage to the petitioner. But it was not sufficient for the Court to accept as a valid marriage.