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The fresh claimant removed disabled widow’s insurance policies benefits for the worker’s earnings number, nevertheless the Secretary refuted their app since the claimant didn’t meet with the nine-day course-of-relationships needs during the 42 U. 416(c). Which assertion try kept by area legal. The latest claimant following appealed to your U.S. Judge off Appeals into the First Circuit. The newest judge regarding is attractive indexed you to definitely Puerto Rico does not admit common-rules marriage ceremonies and therefore certain requirements to possess creating a legitimate relationships inside the Puerto Rico are set ahead from inside the Article 69 of your own Civil Password, 29 L.P.Roentgen.A beneficial. § 231. The judge learned that, in such a case, the requirements of Blog post 69 was indeed certainly perhaps not came across nine weeks prior to the worker’s dying. The fresh legal subsequent found that the new claimant’s constitutional “equivalent safety” attack on 9-few days cycle-of-marriage criteria try incorrect lower than Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, forty five L.Ed.2d 522 (1975), and you will Mathews v. de- Castro, 429 You.S. 181, 97 S.Ct. 431, fifty L.Ed.2d 389 (1976). The fresh claimant and debated one to, while the she was the newest worker’s concubine, she got the right lower than Puerto Rican rules so you can inherit regarding the worker’s property due to the fact their widow, and you will she would be considered to be the fresh widow of personnel under 42 U. 416(h)(1)(A). Brand new courtroom away from is attractive found that, significantly less than Puerto Rican rules, a beneficial concubine out-of a member of staff features a straight to a percentage of the property acquired throughout concubinage but really does not have a straight to inherit an effective widow’s display of inactive worker’s intestate individual assets. Thus, brand new claimant couldn’t be deemed as the brand new widow out of brand new personnel under 42 You. 416(h)(1)(A) because of the applying of what the law states out-of Puerto Rico towards the intestate sequence. Inside the upholding the new section court’s decision affirming the newest Secretary’s assertion off that it claim to possess widow’s professionals, the latest legal off is attractive stored your claimant was not named in order to benefits while the handicapped widow of staff member.
She contended one, because the she and the worker got cohabited having twenty years previous towards the date of their ceremonial relationship, the cohabitation had switched its relationship toward an appropriate marriage better until the 9-week several months
Appellant Esther Ayuso Morales sought Social Safeguards disability benefits based upon their unique position once the “widow” of your insured employee Honorio Montanez Figueroa. Below 42 You. § 416(c) to help you qualify because good “widow” a lady have to have come married for around 9 weeks in the course of their own husband’s demise. Appellant’s relationship took place from inside the nine-day period. Experts was in fact rejected.
Toward interest, she urges one to the woman EslovГЎquia fГЄmea is still eligible because the she cohabited having their husband to have 20 years just before their marriage. She contributes you to, anyhow, below 42 You. § 416(h)(1)(A) a candidate try good widow when the she would, “beneath the regulations . . . [out of Puerto Rico] choosing new devolution regarding intestate personal assets, have a similar standing . . . because a partner . . . [or] widow. . . .” Discover essentially, Rombauer, Relationship Updates and Eligibility to have Government Legal Income Advantages: A historical Questionnaire, 52 Tidy.L.Rev. 227, 257 mais aussi. seq. (1977). She says the concubinage legislation off Puerto Rico brings their unique instance standing.
We simply cannot take on appellant’s basic conflict. We realize one some common rules jurisdictions accept low-ceremonial or “common-law marriages.” These types of marriages are manufactured by the consent of events since the any other bargain. F.W. Kuchlar, Laws out of Involvement and you can Relationships step one-5 (2d ed. 1978); find O.Elizabeth. Koegel, Common law ent in the usa (1922). But common law marriages are not acknowledged for the Puerto Rico. The requisites off a legitimate relationships inside the Puerto Rico are set ahead during the Blog post 69 of one’s Civil Password, 30 L.P.R.A good. § 231. Incorporated of those requisites is the “[a]uthorization and you can affair out of an effective matrimonial deal depending on the variations and you can solemnities recommended legally.” On the absence of this type of variations and you will solemnities, there is no marriage. Rivera v. Section Court out-of San Juan, 58 P.Roentgen.R. 352, 354 (1941); Vazquez Bote, Notas acerca de este matrimonio durante derecho puertoriqueno, 49-56 Rev. P.R. 491, 493-94, 510-twelve (1973-75). E. Lalaguana Dominguez, Estudios de- derecho matrimonial 244-forty-five (1962).
