Case Update (15 March 2024): Mihigo v. Mihigo; New York applies lex loci celebrationis to recognize DRC marriage

The Fourth Department of the Supreme Court of New York affirmed a judgment from the Supreme Court of Onondaga County in a divorce suit. The divorce suit had granted Plaintiff, Charlotte, a divorce. On appeal, Defendant contended that the Plaintiff had failed to meet her burden of establishing that the parties were married in Africa in 1994. The parties had, at trial, testified that they had met in 1987 or 1988 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and had begun living together as husband and wife and, shortly thereafter, had children together. In August 1994, in preparing to travel to a refugee camp, to seek asylum, they obtained a document that showed that they were married. Therefore, the Onondaga Court found that the parties were married in 1994. The parties’ testimony had showed that they were considered married “in their culture in Africa.” New York applies the rule that a marriage which is valid in the place where it is celebrated is a valid marriage in New York (presumably with some public policy exceptions that do not apply here).

Therefore, the court concluded that the parties, who celebrated a customary marriage in the DRC, were married, and set the date of marriage at 1994, because there was a document from that timeframe confirming their marriage.