P.Roentgen
The claimant applied for disabled widow’s insurance coverage experts with the worker’s income number, however the Secretary refuted their unique software just like the claimant did not meet up with the 9-month cycle-of-relationship demands during the 42 You.S.C. 416(c). That it assertion was kept by region judge. Brand new claimant following appealed on the You.S. Court out-of Is attractive on Very first Circuit. The fresh legal away from is attractive noted one Puerto Rico doesn’t recognize common-laws marriage ceremonies and this the requirements getting installing a valid wedding when you look at the Puerto Rico are prepared onward into the Blog post 69 of the Municipal Code, 30 L.Good. § 231. New court learned that, in cases like this, the requirements of Post 69 had been obviously perhaps not came across 9 weeks before the worker’s death. This new courtroom after that discovered that the new claimant’s constitutional “equivalent shelter” attack towards nine-times duration-of-wedding criteria are incorrect less than Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 You.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, 45 L.Ed.2d 522 (1975), and you can Mathews v. de Castro, 429 U.S. 181, 97 S.Ct. 431, 50 L.Ed.2d 389 (1976). The fresh claimant including argued you to, given that she is the fresh new worker’s concubine, she had the right less than Puerto Rican legislation so you can inherit away from new worker’s property as his widow, and you will she should be considered as the latest widow of one’s staff member below 42 U.S.C. 416(h)(1)(A). This new judge away from appeals found that, lower than Puerto Rican legislation, a concubine away from a member of staff has actually a straight to a portion of the property received over the course of concubinage however, does n’t have a straight to inherit a widow’s express of your own dry worker’s intestate personal possessions. Hence, this new claimant cannot getting deemed getting this new widow of the fresh personnel less than 42 You.S.C. 416(h)(1)(A) of the application of regulations regarding Puerto Rico into the intestate series. From inside the maintaining the area court’s choice affirming the new Secretary’s assertion out of which claim getting widow’s experts, brand new courtroom out of appeals kept that claimant was not entitled to advantages once the handicapped widow of the employee.
Appellant Esther Ayuso Morales sought Societal Shelter handicap gurus depending their own status because the “widow” of the covered personnel Honorio Montanez Figueroa. Less than 42 You.S.C. § 416(c) to meet the requirements as an effective “widow” a female must have started partnered for around nine days at the time of their unique partner’s dying. Appellant’s matrimony taken place from inside the nine-month months. Pros was in fact declined.
She argued you to definitely, because the she together with worker got cohabited to own twenty years past on the day of the ceremonial relationships, its cohabitation had transformed their relationship towards the an appropriate marriage really before the nine-month period
Into notice, she appetite one this woman is still qualified once the she cohabited with their particular spouse having twenty years in advance of its wedding. She adds one, anyhow, not as much as 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(A) an applicant try a good widow in the event that she’d, “under the laws . . . [regarding Puerto Rico] deciding this new devolution of intestate individual property, have a similar reputation . . . since a wife . . . [or] widow. . . .” Pick basically, Rombauer, Marital Updates and you will Eligibility for Government Legal Money Experts: An old Questionnaire, nice hot Cherkasy in Ukraine girl 52 Tidy.L.Rev. 227, 257 et. seq. (1977). She claims the concubinage law of Puerto Rico brings her eg status.
We simply cannot take on appellant’s very first argument. We understand you to definitely some traditional law jurisdictions recognize low-ceremonial or “common law marriage ceremonies.” These types of marriages are created because of the concur of the functions because the all other bargain. F.W. Kuchlar, Laws regarding Involvement and you may Matrimony 1-5 (2d ed. 1978); find O.Age. Koegel, Common law ent in america (1922). However, common law marriages are not recognized inside Puerto Rico. The newest requisites from a legitimate matrimony during the Puerto Rico are set forth in Post 69 of your own Municipal Password, 30 L.A great. § 231. Incorporated among these requisites ‘s the “[a]uthorization and affair regarding good matrimonial price according to the variations and you will solemnities prescribed by law.” Regarding absence of these models and you can solemnities, there clearly was no marriage. Rivera v. Region Courtroom out of San Juan, 58 Roentgen. 352, 354 (1941); Vazquez Bote, Notas acerca de este matrimonio dentro de derecho puertoriqueno, 49-56 Rev. 491, 493-94, 510-12 (1973-75). Elizabeth. Lalaguana Dominguez, Estudios de derecho matrimonial 244-45 (1962).