Nullity

Alfonso-Brown v Millwood [2006] EWHC 642 (Fam); FLJ October

In a claim for ancillary relief, two issues had to be resolved in order to determine whether the petitioner was entitled to any of the relief she sought. The first was whether or not events that occurred at a ceremony in Ghana constituted a marriage according to the customary law of the Ga people and, second, if it did, whether the respondent husband intended to marry the petitioner at the ceremony. If both questions could be answered in the affirmative, then the petitioner would have been entitled to a decree of nullity and therefore to pursue her claims for ancillary relief. Conversely, if the answer to either question was no, she would not be entitled to a decree of nullity and therefore would not be able to pursue claims for ancillary relief. Although, the court found that a customary law marriage could have taken place, because the petitioner was unable to establish that the respondent intended to marry her at the ceremony, the petition for nullity (and therefore her claims for ancillary relief) was dismissed. The case was included in an article ‘Dealing with the marriages that never were …’ by Fiona Wilson in which she examined void and voidable marriages and the often unique case law relating to them.