Couple's divorce annulled

2008-11-19 09:01

Mike van Rooyen

Bloemfontein - Usually marriages are annulled in the Free State High Court. But on Tuesday, a divorce was annulled, after it emerged a woman had lied to the judge to obtain her divorce.

Her husband was completely unaware of the fact that his divorce was before the court.

As far as he knew, he had refused to sign the settlement agreement, in which his estranged wife claimed half of his pension and the house in which he was living in Bloemfontein.

But this did not deter her - she asked the man she is now living with to sign the document on her husband's behalf, and the divorce went through.

Fraud charges

According to court papers, she and her partner are now facing fraud charges.

The husband said in his statement that he was surprised when his wife - who he had been separated from for three years - called him to say that their divorce was granted after she was "summoned" by the court three times and he failed to arrive for the divorce proceedings.

He told her that was not the way things worked and it was all news to him, reminding her that he and his lawyer were still negotiating with her about the divorce.

The next day his lawyer called him to say her clerk had been in court and had seen his wife appear before the judge, and that the divorce had been granted.

The lawyer thought he had signed a settlement agreement with the wife's lawyer behind her back, which he denied.

Last week the husband and his lawyer went and drew his divorce file. They found the settlement agreement with the falsified signature that had been made an order of the court.

'Ex-husband' must pay up

During the past week, the wife arrived at his office at one of the major retail outlets at the Waterfront in Bloemfontein with a "letter". She told the personnel manager that the divorce had gone through and that her "ex-husband" now had to pay up.

The personnel manager said he would only accept letters of that nature from the sheriff.

The husband said he could suffer irrevocable damage if the wife succeeded in registering the house in which he lived in her name with the aid of the divorce order and the falsified settlement agreement.

For this reason he had requested an urgent order on Tuesday, which was granted.

- Volksblad