With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it may seem more than a little unromantic to consider this question. But, in fact it is a serious legal issue for some, as the following true story illustrates. And it is also, actually, about love:

More than 30 years ago, ‘Angela’, a single parent in her twenties, fell in love with and married an unsuitable man in haste. She quickly realised that her new husband ‘Charlie’ was addicted to cocaine. He was violent and his behaviour was unpredictable. He stole from Angela and physically assaulted her, so she left him a year into the marriage. He then left the country to stay with relatives abroad. She attempted to divorce him but because his whereabouts were unknown, she wasn’t able to progress matters.

Time passed and Angela moved on with her life. About 15 years ago she met her partner, David and they moved in together. They were very happy together and wanted to marry, but then Angela found out, to her horror, that as she was still legally married to Charlie she could not marry David.

She talked to many family law solicitors, none of whom could help her. She then came across the charity Missing People and through them, contacted me to ask about the Presumption of Death Act 2013  . Angela didn’t know where Charlie was but had heard via a contact on Facebook that Charlie may have been murdered in the West Indies in 2013. The rumour was that he had been shot dead by drug dealers. But despite all her efforts to find out more, she could find no trace of a death certificate and no clear evidence about what may have happened to him. She was as sure as she could be that he was dead; but if she couldn’t prove it, she was still legally married. He was officially a ‘missing person’ and that left her in a legal limbo.

The only way that Angela’s marriage to Charlie could be dissolved would be by her making an application to the High Court for a declaration of presumed death. She would gain no benefit financially from the declaration being made – the only purpose of it would be to bring the marriage to an end so that she could remarry. The Act makes it clear that if a missing person is presumed to have died, then the court order also automatically ends any marriage to which they were a party. The only problem then for Angela was that the legal costs involved are usually in the region of £7000 – 9000 and she simply didn’t have that sort of money.

Love will find a way…and because even solicitors have a romantic side, I acted for Angela for no charge. And on 2^nd February 2022, a Judge said ‘I do’  and the Order was made, declaring that Charlie was presumed to have died in 2013 and freeing Angela, at last, to marry the love of her life.

Sarah Young – Director & Solicitor