putative marriage

vendingmachine commented on the word putative marriage

A valid marriage, entered into in good faith on the part of at least one of the partners, but that is legally invalid due to a technical impediment, such as a preexistent marriage on the part of one of the partners. Unlike someone in a common-law, statutory, or ceremonial marriage, a putative spouse is not legally married. Instead, a putative spouse believes himself or herself to be married in good faith and is given legal rights as a result of this person's reliance upon this good-faith belief.

Unlike a common-law marriage, which is possible only when both spouses are legally eligible to marry, putative spouse status can be unilateral. For example, if a husband is married, but goes through a marriage ceremony without informing the woman with whom he goes through with the ceremony of that fact, the husband is not a putative spouse, because he knows that he has no legal ability to marry. The wife however is a putative spouse because she in good faith believes that she is legally married, and has no knowledge that she is not legally married.

In the example above, the putative wife who believed she was married could seek the property division and alimony awards that a legal spouse could have, when the putative spouse discovers that she is not legally married, but her husband could not seek a property division in the putative wife's name or alimony from her, because he knew that their marriage was not legal.

If, on the other hand, the husband had had reliable but incorrect information that his first wife was dead, both the husband and the wife would have the status of putative spouse.

June 24, 2015