THE High Court has ruled that a woman who remarried before the
divorce to her previous husband was made final will not be entitled
to maintenance payments, now that the later marriage has also
tanked.
In a reserved judgment released on Tuesday, Justice Kan Ting
Chiu said this was because when she married her latest husband, a
Briton, in October 1995, her earlier marriage to a Japanese man was
technically still in force.
She had been told by the Japanese man that their marriage had
been dissolved in June 1995, and she took this information at face
value.
Under Japanese law, however, the divorce would have taken
another six months - or until December that year - to become
final.
This made her 10-year union with the Briton void from the very
start.
The issue of maintenance and the division of matrimonial assets
came up after her marriage to him broke up as well.
-- ST