P.R
The latest claimant applied for handicapped widow’s insurance rates benefits into the worker’s income number, nevertheless Assistant declined her app once the claimant don’t meet the 9-day period-of-relationship needs inside 42 You.S.C. 416(c). This assertion are upheld because of the area courtroom. The fresh claimant after that appealed with the U.S. Legal of Appeals for the First Circuit. The brand new judge out of is attractive noted one to Puerto Rico does not acknowledge common-law marriages which the requirements having starting a valid marriage into the Puerto Rico are ready ahead during the Blog post 69 of Civil Password, 29 L.An effective. § 231. The new judge found that, in this instance, the needs of Blog post 69 was demonstrably perhaps not satisfied 9 weeks before the worker’s dying. The latest courtroom next unearthed that the new claimant’s constitutional “equal security” assault for the nine-day course-of-marriage criteria is invalid not as much as Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 You.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, forty five L.Ed.2d 522 (1975), and you can Mathews v. de Castro, 429 You.S. 181, 97 S.Ct. 431, 50 L.Ed.2d 389 (1976). Brand new claimant and contended one, given that she are new worker’s concubine, she got the right less than Puerto Rican rules so you’re able to inherit off brand new worker’s property while the his widow, and you may she is considered getting the latest widow of the personnel not as much as 42 You.S.C. 416(h)(1)(A). The fresh new legal of appeals found that, around Puerto Rican law, an excellent concubine from a worker enjoys a straight to a portion of the house gotten throughout concubinage however, do n’t have a right to inherit a widow’s show of one’s inactive worker’s intestate private property. For this reason, the new claimant could not end up being considered to get brand new widow out-of the newest staff member under 42 U.S.C. 416(h)(1)(A) of the applying of legislation from Puerto Rico into intestate series. In maintaining the brand new area court’s decision affirming the fresh new Secretary’s denial off that it claim for widow’s benefits, this new court of is attractive kept your claimant was not named so you’re able to experts since handicapped widow of one’s personnel.
Appellant Esther Ayuso Morales needed Personal Protection impairment gurus reliant their own reputation once the “widow” of insured staff Honorio Montanez Figueroa. Significantly less than 42 U.S.C. § 416(c) so you can be considered due to the fact a good “widow” a lady have to have already been married for around 9 days in the course of their own partner’s demise. Appellant’s relationships occurred into the 9-month period. Positives was basically declined.
She argued you to, as she and the employee got cohabited for two decades earlier with the time of its ceremonial marriage, their cohabitation got turned their relationship on an appropriate relationship really till the nine-times months
Towards appeal, she urges one to she’s however eligible once the she cohabited having her spouse for 20 years prior to the matrimony. She contributes that, anyway, not as much as 42 You.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(A) an applicant was a beneficial widow if the she’d, “within the statutes . . . [out-of Puerto Rico] determining the newest devolution out of Evlilik iГ§in Arap kД±zlar intestate personal assets, have the same reputation . . . while the a partner . . . [or] widow. . . .” Come across fundamentally, Rombauer, Relationship Status and you may Eligibility to own Federal Statutory Money Gurus: An old Survey, 52 Tidy.L.Rev. 227, 257 mais aussi. seq. (1977). She says the concubinage rules off Puerto Rico offers their own particularly standing.
We can’t take on appellant’s earliest conflict. We all know you to some common laws jurisdictions admit non-ceremonial or “common-law marriages.” This type of marriages are created of the agree of your own events once the any other offer. F.W. Kuchlar, Legislation of Involvement and Relationship step one-5 (2d ed. 1978); select O.Age. Koegel, Common law ent in the us (1922). But common law marriage ceremonies are not approved inside the Puerto Rico. The brand new requisites out-of a legitimate wedding during the Puerto Rico are prepared forward in Article 69 of your own Municipal Code, 30 L.An effective. § 231. Included among these requisites ‘s the “[a]uthorization and you may occasion regarding a beneficial matrimonial bargain with respect to the forms and you will solemnities prescribed legally.” Throughout the absence of these variations and solemnities, there’s no relationship. Rivera v. Region Court off San Juan, 58 R. 352, 354 (1941); Vazquez Bote, Notas acerca de este matrimonio dentro de derecho puertoriqueno, 49-56 Rev. 491, 493-94, 510-twelve (1973-75). E. Lalaguana Dominguez, Estudios de derecho matrimonial 244-forty five (1962).