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This new claimant applied for disabled widow’s insurance coverage professionals to your worker’s income listing, however the Assistant denied their own application once the claimant didn’t meet with the nine-few days years-of-matrimony demands during the 42 You. 416(c). So it denial is actually kept by area judge. The newest claimant up coming appealed towards You.S. Judge out-of Appeals on First Circuit. The newest legal out-of is attractive indexed one to Puerto Rico doesn’t know common-law marriages which what’s needed to own setting up a valid matrimony when you look at the Puerto Rico are set ahead in the Article 69 of the Municipal Code, 29 L.P.R.A beneficial. § 231. The latest court found that, in this situation, the requirements of Post 69 have been obviously perhaps not satisfied 9 days ahead of the worker’s passing. This new judge then found that brand new claimant’s constitutional « equal defense » attack into the nine-week course-of-marriage demands are incorrect less than Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, forty five L.Ed.2d 522 (1975), and you may Mathews v. de Castro, 429 You.S. 181, 97 S.Ct. 431, fifty L.Ed.2d 389 (1976). Brand new claimant in addition to argued you to, once the she are new worker’s concubine, she got the right less than Puerto Rican law so you can inherit out-of the fresh worker’s house because his widow, and you will she will be considered as the widow of staff member significantly less than 42 U. 416(h)(1)(A). This new courtroom out of is attractive found that, less than Puerto Rican laws, a concubine off a member of staff keeps a directly to a portion of the property acquired over the course of concubinage however, do not have a straight to inherit a beneficial widow’s display of one’s deceased worker’s intestate private assets. For this reason, brand new claimant cannot be deemed becoming the new widow off brand new worker around 42 U. 416(h)(1)(A) of the application of the law away from Puerto Rico toward intestate series. In upholding the district court’s decision affirming brand new Secretary’s assertion out-of this allege to possess widow’s pros, the brand new courtroom from appeals kept that the claimant was not called to advantages as the disabled widow of staff.
She contended you to, because the she in https://kissbrides.com/pt-pt/indiancupid-recensao/ addition to staff had cohabited getting two decades earlier to your day of their ceremonial relationships, the cohabitation got switched their relationships on the an appropriate marriage better up until the nine-times months
Appellant Esther Ayuso Morales found Societal Defense disability professionals based upon their reputation due to the fact « widow » of the covered employee Honorio Montanez Figueroa. Significantly less than 42 You. § 416(c) so you can meet the requirements because the an effective « widow » a lady must have been partnered for around nine weeks during the time of her husband’s dying. Appellant’s relationships happened inside the 9-month period. Positives had been refuted.
Towards the desire, she urges you to definitely she’s nevertheless qualified since the she cohabited with their particular partner to own twenty years prior to its marriage. She contributes you to, anyhow, below 42 U. § 416(h)(1)(A) an applicant is actually a great widow if the she’d, « beneath the rules . . . [out-of Puerto Rico] determining the newest devolution of intestate individual assets, have a similar condition . . . while the a wife . . . [or] widow. . . . » See generally, Rombauer, Marital Standing and Qualification to have Government Statutory Income Benefits: A historical Survey, 52 Wash.L.Rev. 227, 257 et. seq. (1977). She states your concubinage law out of Puerto Rico provides their like reputation.
We can not undertake appellant’s first dispute. We all know you to some common legislation jurisdictions accept low-ceremonial or « common-law marriage ceremonies. » Such marriage ceremonies are created of the agree of one’s people since the every other deal. F.W. Kuchlar, Laws off Engagement and Matrimony 1-5 (2d ed. 1978); discover O.Age. Koegel, Common-law ent in the united states (1922). However, common law marriage ceremonies aren’t recognized into the Puerto Rico. New requisites from a legitimate matrimony when you look at the Puerto Rico are prepared ahead into the Article 69 of your own Municipal Password, 30 L.P.Roentgen.A good. § 231. Incorporated of those requisites ‘s the « [a]uthorization and you can affair out of a great matrimonial contract with regards to the forms and you can solemnities prescribed for legal reasons. » In the lack of this type of forms and you will solemnities, there’s zero marriage. Rivera v. Region Court from San Juan, 58 P.R.Roentgen. 352, 354 (1941); Vazquez Bote, Notas acerca de el matrimonio dentro de derecho puertoriqueno, 49-56 Rev. P.Roentgen. 491, 493-94, 510-several (1973-75). Elizabeth. Lalaguana Dominguez, Estudios de derecho matrimonial 244-45 (1962).
