D
Dave The Dude
Guest
The lady vanishes: Personal disappearance in Thailand _ Part I
We recently wrote a column on bigamy and received a number of questions on personal disappearance. The questions went something like: ''Let's say you were married in Thailand to a Thai and later split up. Then your spouse goes missing. What do you do if you want to remarry?
Remember one thing: in Thailand, if you're only married in a religious ceremony you don't have to get divorced if you split up. You only have to get divorced if you've been married in a civil ceremony at a district office in Bangkok or at provincial district offices.
So, assuming you were married in a civil ceremony, how could you remarry if your present spouse has disappeared? In such a circumstance, perhaps this person has gone somewhere far away or perhaps just to live with someone else and is avoiding everybody they knew from their previous life. Or the person who has disappeared could be dead.
Thai law offers a solution to this problem. Sections 61 and 62 of the Civil and Commercial Code of Thailand provide that if a person has left home, and no one knows the whereabouts of that person for a period of five years, any interested person (such as a former spouse) can file an application with a judge.
The judge, after looking at the evidence, can make the decision that the person has disappeared. This, in turn, can be used as grounds for terminating the marriage under Section 1565 (5) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code.
The five-year period can be reduced to two years in three circumstances, namely, if the missing person disappeared as a result of:
- A battle or war.
- A vehicle accident or disappearance _ this could include a car crash, shipwreck or plane crash.
- Some other known peril such as a natural disaster or accident.
How would you make use of these legal provisions?
You would obtain as much evidence as you could that the person had disappeared. For example, you might ask the person's family members to testify that the individual had left home and disappeared. You could also get similar statements from the person's former employers, neighbours and friends. A judge has wide discretion on what evidence to accept in such a case and can rely on either written or oral testimony.
Your lawyer would then file an application to a judge. If the judge agreed with the evidence you had gathered, he or she would issue an order to the effect that your spouse had disappeared. You would then have to file an application to the court for the dissolution of the marriage, using the grounds of disappearance. The court would then issue an order dissolving the marriage.
You could then remarry by showing the district office a certified copy of the order from the judge.
But what happens if the disappeared person shows up again?
Let's say, for example, you've remarried and a year after the wedding your previous spouse walks in the door, tells you she's been travelling the world and demands her share of the earnings of your now-dissolved marriage.
Since the marriage has been dissolved you cannot be accused of bigamy and your earlier marriage will be considered void.
But what if you had only obtained the order of disappearance but not the dissolution of marriage because you hadn't wanted to remarry, only to cut off your former spouse's rights in connection with the marriage? The adjudication of disappearance alone will cut off your spouse's rights under Thai law to claim half of what was earned earned during the marriage or as a statutory heir. Thus your former spouse couldn't claim these rights. If you had somehow remarried without dissolving the marriage, however, you could be prosecuted for bigamy.
Sections 61 and 62, discussed above, apply to other situations that we'll discuss next week.
We recently wrote a column on bigamy and received a number of questions on personal disappearance. The questions went something like: ''Let's say you were married in Thailand to a Thai and later split up. Then your spouse goes missing. What do you do if you want to remarry?
Remember one thing: in Thailand, if you're only married in a religious ceremony you don't have to get divorced if you split up. You only have to get divorced if you've been married in a civil ceremony at a district office in Bangkok or at provincial district offices.
So, assuming you were married in a civil ceremony, how could you remarry if your present spouse has disappeared? In such a circumstance, perhaps this person has gone somewhere far away or perhaps just to live with someone else and is avoiding everybody they knew from their previous life. Or the person who has disappeared could be dead.
Thai law offers a solution to this problem. Sections 61 and 62 of the Civil and Commercial Code of Thailand provide that if a person has left home, and no one knows the whereabouts of that person for a period of five years, any interested person (such as a former spouse) can file an application with a judge.
The judge, after looking at the evidence, can make the decision that the person has disappeared. This, in turn, can be used as grounds for terminating the marriage under Section 1565 (5) of the Thai Civil and Commercial Code.
The five-year period can be reduced to two years in three circumstances, namely, if the missing person disappeared as a result of:
- A battle or war.
- A vehicle accident or disappearance _ this could include a car crash, shipwreck or plane crash.
- Some other known peril such as a natural disaster or accident.
How would you make use of these legal provisions?
You would obtain as much evidence as you could that the person had disappeared. For example, you might ask the person's family members to testify that the individual had left home and disappeared. You could also get similar statements from the person's former employers, neighbours and friends. A judge has wide discretion on what evidence to accept in such a case and can rely on either written or oral testimony.
Your lawyer would then file an application to a judge. If the judge agreed with the evidence you had gathered, he or she would issue an order to the effect that your spouse had disappeared. You would then have to file an application to the court for the dissolution of the marriage, using the grounds of disappearance. The court would then issue an order dissolving the marriage.
You could then remarry by showing the district office a certified copy of the order from the judge.
But what happens if the disappeared person shows up again?
Let's say, for example, you've remarried and a year after the wedding your previous spouse walks in the door, tells you she's been travelling the world and demands her share of the earnings of your now-dissolved marriage.
Since the marriage has been dissolved you cannot be accused of bigamy and your earlier marriage will be considered void.
But what if you had only obtained the order of disappearance but not the dissolution of marriage because you hadn't wanted to remarry, only to cut off your former spouse's rights in connection with the marriage? The adjudication of disappearance alone will cut off your spouse's rights under Thai law to claim half of what was earned earned during the marriage or as a statutory heir. Thus your former spouse couldn't claim these rights. If you had somehow remarried without dissolving the marriage, however, you could be prosecuted for bigamy.
Sections 61 and 62, discussed above, apply to other situations that we'll discuss next week.