Section 1496

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 4981/2541 (1998)

   A second marriage registered while an earlier marriage still subsists is void under section 1452. For that class of void marriage the governing provision is section 1497, not section 1496: section 1497 both declares the nullity and gives any interested person the right to apply to the court for a declaration. Because the right to apply comes from the statute itself, the interested person may proceed by petition and need not bring a plaint.

   The petitioner registered a marriage in October 1993 with a man who assured the registrar he had no spouse; it later emerged that he was already married. In February 1997 she applied to the Juvenile and Family Court, as an interested person, for a declaration that the marriage was void. The first court refused to accept the application, holding that the claim had to be brought as a plaint, and the Court of Appeal agreed. The Supreme Court reversed: the marriage is void under section 1452 read with section 1497, and section 1497 itself confers on an interested person the right to apply to the court for a declaration of nullity, so presenting the case as a petition was proper. It set aside both decisions below and directed the first court to accept the petition and proceed.

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2. Supreme Court Judgment No. 6051/2540 (1997)

   A marriage validly contracted abroad under the law of the place of celebration and valid under section 1459 paragraph one makes that person a spouse in Thailand. A later Thai registration of marriage while that spouse still exists contravenes section 1452 and is void under section 1496 as it stood at the time of the registration.

   The marriage between the plaintiff and the deceased S. was valid under the law of the State of Nevada in the United States and also under section 1459 paragraph one, so the plaintiff was S.'s spouse. When the defendant later registered a marriage with S. under Thai law, S. already had a spouse, so the registration contravened section 1452 and was void under section 1496 as it stood at the time the defendant registered it.

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Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.