A and B had nearly finished their ceremony at their local Roman Catholic Church . When the priest asked B to place the wedding ring on A's Finger he shouted out 'i know uve been sleeping with my dad, i have no intention of marrying you' B stormd out of the church. A thinks they are legall married but B says they are not as they did not sign the register. Are A and B legally married?
I know i should know this as im married myself and my instinct is saying no but then the other half is saying that the certificate is merely proof of marriage and marriage itself is an oral contract, so therefore suggesting that they are married.
But i dot know....cos....the ring exchange is the point where you make all of the promises, so that would mean the contract has not been formed at all. I dont know whether its different for a Roman catholic marriage though.
Sorry to be a pain, im really stuck though....and the massive pile of textbooks i have read dont seem to have shed any light on it.
CommentAuthorVintageChic
Ohhh that is a tricky one. One i don't know an answer too but surely it wouldnt be valid if the rings have not been exchanged at least, although i feel the signing would be the binding part if i'm honest.
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CommentAuthorMrs (Dove) Pidgeon
There are two halves to the marriage being legal- the vows in front of witnesses, then the register. So sort of half married.
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CommentAuthorTattieSoup
I think the ring is probably a red herring as it is just a token and I doubt it would have any standing in law. I think an oral contract probably would hold if made in the presence of witnesses, even if the register wasn't signed. So the deciding factor would be if there was an oral contract or not. I'm sure oral contracts are valid in Scotland, not positive about England though.
The compulsory parts of a civil wedding service are called the "declaratory words" and the "contracting words". The declaratory words is the bit where you say that you are free to marry (no lawful impediment etc) and the contracting words are where you say "I <name> take thee <name> to be my wedded husband/wife."
I assume they are called the contracting words because they form a contract, so if this part had been said in front of witnesses I think they should be married, regardless of whether or not he put the ring on her finger.
On the other hand, I think by the same reasoning, a service that includes the phrase "all my worldy goods I thee bestow" should form an oral contract which supercedes any earlier prenuptial agreement, but this doesn't seem to be the case!! (Although a prenuptial agreement has no legal standing in the UK, courts generally take it into consideration, and I have never heard of them not doing this because of the wording of the wedding service!!)
I'm not a lawyer or anything, so this is all just a guess/opinion really.
CommentAuthorMrs Hinch2B
eeeekkk thats a tough one hun! I'm really not sure x
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I would say no because a verbal contract is not always valid, as they had not yet signed the register nothing was documented down therefore can not be enforced??
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CommentAuthorLindsey Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Thankyou so much, its given me more ways of thinking about it. Tattiesoup that is really iteresting....id read omething about contracting words but not thought about it in that way. :)
Thankyou sooooooo much :) xxx
CommentAuthorTattieSoup
It's a really interesting question though! If you get a definitive answer come back and tell us!
I would probably say no, but wouldnt know for sure legally.
CommentAuthor~*~ Becca ~*~
question is why would he leave it to the ring exchange to confront her lol
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CommentAuthorluvlifejen (mrs berr
wow! shock horror! lol but legally i'm not sure of the answer i would probably say no as they havent signed the register xx
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CommentAuthorEmsy5000
ummm I don't think they will be because they did not sign anything but really not sure
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CommentAuthorKimi
No - or else we would all be married verbally anyway - If you verbal agreement and rings were exchanged it's half done and therefore not legally married. But once they sign then they would be legally married.
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CommentAuthormrsb2b
no, you def have to sign the registrar, because my 1st time, the minister told me that it was nt legal until that was done
