Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1889

Mr. Hanna to Mr. Blaine.

Legation of the United States,
Buenos Ayres, May 20, 1889. (Received July 6.)

No. 235.]

Sir: As a number of vexatious delays and embarrassments have occurred here recently among citizens of the United States in reference to rights of marriage I have deemed it advisable, for personal information, to transmit to the Department duplicate copies of the law of matrimony which went into effect in this country April 1, 1889, together with translations of the same, also in duplicate.

By article 19 of this law, it is provided that the parties intending to contract matrimony, at the time of expressing their consent as required by Article 14 of the law, must produce before the public officer having charge of the respective civil registry the following papers:

(1) Certificate of birth or baptism.

(2) In case of previous marriage, certificate of death of former spouse.

(3) A duly legalized copy of the decree annulling any previous marriage of either party.

(4) The authentic declaration of the person whose consent is required by the law. Also, in ease the original domicile of either party is not in the Argentine Republic, such party must produce a certificate of his or her civil status in that domicile.

In case of the non-existence of the certificates required by the above article 19, the facts may be shown under article 21 by other modes of proof permitted by the Argentine civil code.

I am, etc.,

Bayless W. Hanna.

[Inclosure No. 1 in dispatch No. 235.—Translation.]

Civil Marriage Law.

In fulfillment of our promise, we give the first portion of the law of civil marriage which came into force in this Republic on the first day of this month. The law was passed on November 12, 1888, and is numbered 2393.

Art. 1. The code is modified in the manner and in accordance with what is established in the following articles:

Section 2.—Of Personal Rights in Family Relationship.

Chapter 1.—Regimen of matrimony.

Art. 2. The validity of the marriage, in the absence of the impediments established in sections 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of article 9, shall be decided in the Republic by the law of the place in which it was celebrated, although the contracting parties may have left their domicile in order not to be subject to the forms and laws there prevailing.

Art. 3. The personal rights and obligations of the spouses are governed by the laws of the Republic so long as they remain in it, whatever may be the country in which the marriage has been contracted.

Art. 4. The property of the husband and wife is subject to the dispositions of the nuptial contract, whatever may the laws of the country in which the marriage was celebrated.

Art. 5. If there have been no nuptial contract nor change of matrimonial domicile, the law of the place where the marriage was celebrated applies to the movable property of the spouses wherever it may be or may have been acquired.

If there have been a change of domicile, the property acquired by the spouses prior to such a change is subject to the laws of the previous domicile, and those subsequently acquired to the laws of the new domicile.

Art. 6. Landed property is subject to the law of the place in which it is situated.

Art. 7. The dissolution in a foreign country of a marriage celebrated in the Argentine Republic, although it may be in conformity with the laws of such country, does not, unless it be in conformity with the laws of this code, enable either of the spouses to marry again.

Chapter 2.—Of betrothal.

Art. 8. The law does not admit an espousal de futuro. No tribunal shall admit any demand in respect thereof nor any compensation for damages which it may have caused.

Chapter 3.— Of impediments.

Art. 9. The following are impediments to marriage:

(1) Consanguinity in the ascending or descending scale, without any limit, and whether legitimate or illegitimate.

(2) Consanguinity in the collateral scale or of the half-blood, legitimate or illegitimate.

(3) Affinity in a direct line in all the degrees.

(4) The woman being under twelve years of age or the man being under fourteen.

(5) A previous marriage still subsisting.

(6) Having been the voluntary author or the accomplice of the homicide of one of the spouses.

(7) Insanity.

As regards sections 1 and 2, the proof of the relationship is subject to the prescriptions of this code.

Art. 10. A woman above twelve years of age and a man above fourteen, but who are minors, and deaf-mutes who can not make themselves understood by writing, can not marry each other or any other person without the consent of their legitimate or natural father who shall have recognized the parentage, or without that of the mother in default of father, or without that of the guardian in default of both father and mother, or if there be, also, no guardian, without the consent of the judge.

Art 11. The civil judge shall decide upon cases of dissent after a private and informal investigation of the facts.

Art. 12. The guardian and his legitimate descendants who are under his power can not contract marriage with his ward until the guardianship shall have ceased and the accounts of his administration shall have been approved. In case of breach of this prescription the guardian shall lose the remuneration assigned to him out of the ward’s income, without predjudice to any penalty which he may have incurred.

Art. 13. If minors should marry without the necessary consent, they shall not have the possession or administration of their property until they attain their majority; there shall be no mode of curing the defect of the want of consent.

Chapter 4.—Of consent.

Art. 14. The consent of the contracting parties expressed before the public officer in charge of the civil register is indispensable for the existence of matrimony.

The act in which any of these requisites shall be wanting shall not produce any civil effects, even if the parties acted in good faith.

Art. 15. The consent may be expressed by proxy, with a special power in which the person with whom the donor of the power is about to contract matrimony is expressly mentioned.

Art. 16. Violence, fraud, or mistake as to identity, physically or civilly, vitiate the consent.

Chapter 5.—Of the preliminaries to the celebration of the marriage.

Art. 17. Those who intend to contract matrimony must attend before the public officer in charge of the civil register in the domicile of either of them, and shall state verbally their intention, of which a record shall be made, and shall be signed by the public officer, by the future spouses, and by two witnesses. If the future spouses can not or do not know how to write, another person shall sign the record at their request.

Art. 18. The record must express:

(1) The Christian and surnames of those who wish to be married.

(2) Their respective ages.

(3) Their nationality, domicile, and place of birth.

(4) Their profession.

(5) The Christian and surnames of their parents, with their nationality, profession, and domicile.

(6) Whether either of them has been previously married, and, in such case, the Christian and surname of the previous spouse, the place of the marriage, and the cause of its dissolution.

Art. 19. The future spouses must at the same time produce—

(1) The certificates of their birth.

(2) In case of a previous marriage of either of them, the certificate of death of the previous spouse.

(3) A copy, duly legalized, of the judgment annulling the previous marriage of either or both the future spouses, as the case may be.

(4) The authentic declaration of the persons whose consent is required by the law, if not given verbally at the time, or the permission of the judge, when required. The parents or guardians who give their consent before the public office shall sign the record referred to in article 17, and if they can not or do not know how to write, one of the witnesses shall sign it at their request.

The future spouses, whose original domicile is not in the republic, must also produce a certificate of their civil status in that domicile.

(5) Two witnesses, who, from their knowledge of the parties, shall declare that they believe them qualified to contract matrimony.

Art. 20. If the certificates mentioned in the preceding article should be found on the register of the public officer who officiates at the marriage it shall be sufficient to refer to them.

Art. 21. In case of the non-existence of the certificates, or when the inscription on the register shall have been made under false names or as of parents unknown, these facts may be proved by the other modes of proof admitted in this code.

Art. 22. The record referred to in article 17 having been duly completed the public officer shall publish it on the outer door of his office during eight days. If the future spouses have different domiciles the public officer before whom the proceedings shall be taken shall remit a copy to the public officer of the other domicile so that he may make an identical publication. If the domicile of the future spouses, or of either of them, shall have been changed during the six months next preceding the publication such publication shall also be made in the previous domicile.

Art. 23. The public officer who receives for publication records remitted from another place must, at the expiration of the term of publication, make a record of such publication, and shall remit a certificate thereof and of any notice of opposition or of there being no opposition to the public officer before whom the marriage is to be celebrated.

Art. 24. The marriage can not be celebrated until the expiration of the third day next after the last day of the publication. If, on account of the domicile of the contracting parties, the publication shall have been made in various places, the public officer can not proceed to the celebration of the marriage without having received the certificates referred to in the previous article.

Art. 25. The publication shall be considered as not having been made if the marriage should not be celebrated within one hundred days.

Chapter 6.—Of opposition.

Art. 26. The only grounds of opposition which can be alleged are those which are established in this code.

The opposition which is not based on the existence of any of those impediments shall be summarily rejected.

Art. 27. The right of opposing the celebration of a marriage by reason of the impediments established in Art. 9 appertains:

(1) To the husband or wife of the person who wishes to contract another marriage.

(2) To the relatives of either of the future spouses within the fourth degree of consanguinity of affinity.

(3) To the guardians or curators.

(4) To the public minister, who must oppose the marriage whenever those impediments become known to him.

Art. 28. If a widow wish to contract matrimony contrary to the dispositions of article 99 the relations in the degree of succession of the deceased husband shall be entitled to oppose the marriage.

Art. 29. The parents, guardians, or curators may also oppose the marriage on the ground of the want of their consent.

Art. 30. The parents, guardians, or curators must express the reasons of the opposition; but the parents shall be exempt from this obligation in the case of a son under eighteen years of age, or of a daughter under fifteen, except when such son or daughter is in the actual enjoyment of his or her property.

The opposition can only be founded:

(1) On the existence of one of the impediments established in article 9.

(2) On the existence of contagious disease in the person who intends to marry the minor.

(3) On the dissipated or immoral conduct of such person.

(4) On the fact that such person has been condemned for the crime of robbery, larceny, swindling, or any other crime punishable with more than one year’s imprisonment.

(5) On the want of means of subsistence and of aptitude for acquiring the same.

Art. 31. The opposition may be declared immediately after the initiation of the proceedings for the marriage and up to the time of its celebration.

Art. 33. The opposition may be declared verbally or by writing, expressing:

(1) The Christian and surname, age, civil status, profession, and domicile of the person opposing.

(2) His relationship to either of the future spouses.

(3) The impediment on which the opposition is founded.

(4) The reasons for believing in the existence of the impediment.

(5) Whether or no there are documents proving the existence of the impediment, and the references thereto.

When the opposition is declared verbally the public officer shall draw up a statement of the facts which must be signed by the opposer and by two witnesses, if he is unable to sign his name. When the opposition is declared in writing, it shall be transcribed into the minute book with the same formalities.

Art. 34. If the opposer have any documents, they must be produced at the same time; if he have none in his possession, but has had notice of them, he shall state where they are and give a list of them.

Art. 35. The opposition having been duly recorded, notice thereof shall be given to the future spouses by the public officer who is to celebrate the marriage.

If either or both of them shall admit the existence of the legal impediment, the public officer shall record that fact and shall not celebrate the marriage.

Art. 36. Should the opposition be declared before a public officer not in the place where the marriage is to be celebrated, he shall, within twenty-four hours, remit to the public officer of such place a copy of the minute of opposition together with the documents produced.

Art. 37. If the opposition should not be founded on any legal impediment, the public officer before whom it is declared shall reject it and record the fact.

Art. 38. If the future spouses shall not acknowledge the existence of the impediment, they must make a declaration to that effect to the public officer within three days next after the day of the notification and the public officer shall record the fact and remit to the civil judge an authorized copy of all the proceedings, with the documents presented, and the celebration of the marriage shall be suspended.

Art. 39. The civil tribunals shall investigate and decide summarily with fiscal citation on the opposition declared, and shall remit to the public officer a legalized copy of the judgment.

Art. 40. The public officer shall not celebrate the marriage until final judgment rejecting the opposition.

If the judgment declare the existence of the impediment on which the opposition is founded the marriage can not be celebrated; in either case the public officer shall note the disposing part of the judgment in the margin of the minute of opposition.

Art. 41. If the opposition be rejected its author, not being a relative in the ascending scale, or the public minister, shall pay to the future spouses a compensation to be fixed at the discretion of the tribunal taking congnizance of the matter.

Art. 42. Any person may denounce the existence of any of the impediments established in article 9.

Art. 43. The denunciation having been formally made, the public officer shall remit it to the civil judge, who shall submit the same to the fiscal minister, and the latter shall within three days declare opposition or state that he considers the denunciation to be unfounded.

Chapter 7.—Of the celebration of the marriage.

Art. 44. The marriage must be celebrated before the public officer in the civil register in his office, publicly, the future spouses, or their proxies in the case provided for by article 15, appearing personally, in the presence of the witnesses and with the formalities prescribed by this law.

If either of the future spouses should be unable to attend at the office, the marriage may be celebrated at his or her place of abode.

Art. 45. There must be two witnesses present if the marriage be celebrated in the office, and four if it be celebrated in the place of abode of either of the spouses.

Art. 46. When celebrating the marriage the public officer shall read to the future spouses articles 55, 55, and 58 of this law, shall receive from each of them personally and successively the declaration that they wish to take each other as husband and wife, and shall declare in the name of the law that they are joined together in matrimony.

The public officer can not offer any opposition to the spouses, after declaring their consent before him, receiving at the same time and place a blessing on their union from a minister of their church or religion.

Art. 47. In the record of the celebration of the marriage there shall be entered:

(1) The date of the ceremony.

(2) The Christian and surnames, age, profession, domicile, and place of birth of the contracting parties.

(3) The Christian and surnames, profession, domicile, and nationality of their respective parents, if they are known.

(4) The Christian and surname of the predeceased husband or wife of either of the parties.

(5) The consent of the parents, guardians, or curators, or the sanction of the judge when required.

(6) The publication of the marriage and its date.

(7) The statement whether or not there was opposition and its rejection.

(8) The declaration of the contracting parties that they take each other for husband and wife, and that of the public officer that they are united in the name of the law.

(9) If the contracting parties have natural children, the acknowledgment that they are legitimized by the marriage.

(10) The Christian and surnames, age, civil status, profession, and domicile of the witnesses.

(11) If the marriage be celebrated by proxy, the document shall be filed in the office, and its date and the name of the place where and of the notary or public officer before whom it was executed shall be mentioned in the record.

Art. 48. The record of the marriage shall be drawn up and signed immediately by all those who take part in the ceremony, or by others at the request of those who are unable to sign their names.

Art. 49. The declaration of the contracting parties that they take each other as husband and wife can not be made subject to any condition whatever.

Art. 50. The chief of the civil register office shall deliver to the spouses a legalized copy of the record of the marriage.

Art. 51. The public officer cannot refuse to celebrate a marriage except for the causes established by this law, and he must not celebrate it when the documents produced show that there is any impediment to the marriage. In case of any such refusal, he shall record the reasons upon which it is founded, and shall deliver a certificate thereof to the persons interested, who may apply for relief to the civil judge if they consider the refusal unfounded.

Art. 52. The public officer shall dispense with all or any of the formalities which ought to precede the marriage and shall proceed to celebrate it, when it is shown by a medical certificate, or, in default of this, by the evidence of two witnesses, that one of the future spouses is in danger of death, which fact shall be entered on the record. When there is danger of death, the marriage in articulo mortis may be celebrated before any judicial functionary, and he shall draw up a record of the celebration and shall state therein the circumstances mentioned in sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of art. 47, and shall remit the record to the public officer in charge of the civil register in order that it may be protocolled.

Art. 53. In the cases provided for by the preceding article the record of the celebration of the marriage shall be published during eight days in the form established by article 22.

Art. 54. All the documents referred to in this law shall be copied into books bound and paged, without prejudice to any other formalities established by the laws of the civil register.

Chapter 8.—Eights and obligations of the spouses.

Art. 55. The spouses are obliged to be faithful to each other, but the unfaithfulness of one of them does not justify that of the other. The unfaithful spouse may be sued in an action for divorce without prejudice to the proceedings authorized by the penal code.

Art. 56. The husband must live in the same house as his wife, must provide her with all necessaries, and must exercise all the acts and actions to which she is entitled, and must pay all her necessary judicial expenses, even if she be accused criminally. Should the husband fail in any of these obligations the wife has the right to demand judicially the necessary alimony and the indispensable costs of the legal proceedings.

Art. 57. When there is no marriage settlement the husband is the legitimate manager of his own and his wife’s property, whether acquired previously or subsequently to the marriage.

Art. 58. The wife must live with her husband wherever he may choose to fix his residence. If she fail in this obligation the husband may ask for the necessary judicial measures and may refuse to maintain her. The tribunals having cognizance of the cause may exempt the wife from this obligation when its fulfillment would endanger her life.

Art. 59. The wife can not be party to a suit, either by herself or by attorney, without the special license in writing of the husband, excepting in cases in which this code presumes the authorization of the husband, or does not require it, or only requires a general or judicial authorization.

Art. 60. Nor can the wife, without the license of her husband or a power of attorney from him, enter into or cancel any contract, or acquire property or shares, whether of an onerous or lucrative character, or dispose of or charge his property, or contract any obligation, or release any obligation in his favor.

Art. 61. It is presumed that the wife is acting by her husband’s authority if she exercise publicly any profession or industry, such as directress of a college, schoolmistress, actress, etc., and in any such case it is understood that she has her husband’s authority for all the acts or contracts relating to her profession or industry in the absence of any protest by him, announced publicly or notified judicially to the persons with whom she may have entered into a contract. The husband’s authority is also presumed for the ready-money purchases made by the wife, and for the purchases on credit of articles intended for the ordinary consumption of the family.

Art. 62. The husband’s authority is unnecessary in suits between him and his wife, or for defending herself if criminally accused, or for making or revoking her will or for administering the property reserved to her by the marriage settlement.

Art. 63. The wife and the husband and their heirs are the only persons who can protest the nullity of the wife’s acts and engagements for want of the husband’s license.

Art. 64. The authority of the judge of the domicile shall be sufficient for the wife when her husband is mad or when his place of abode is unknown, in the cases mentioned in article 135 of this code as regards the acts which unmarried minors can not execute.

Art. 65. The tribunal having cognizance of the cause may supply the authorization of the husband when he is absent or incapacitated from giving it and in the special cases provided for by this code.

Art. 66. The husband may at his own discretion revoke the authorization which he may have given to his wife, but such revocation shall not have any retroactive effect against a third party.

Art. 67. The husband may ratify generally or specially the acts of his wife which he may not have authorized. The notification may be tacit, through acts of the husband which manifest unequivocally his acquiescence.

Art. 68. The acts and contracts of the wife unauthorized by the husband, or authorized by the judge against the will of the husband, shall only bind her own property, if, in the former case, their rescission shall not have been asked for, but they shall not bind the joint property or the husband’s property, except to the extent of the benefit which the husband and wife jointly or the husband alone may have derived therefrom.

Chapter 9.—Of divorce.

Art. 69. The divorce authorized by this code consists only in the personal separation of the spouses, without the dissolution of the matrimonial bond.

Art. 70. The right of asking for a divorce from a competent judge cannot be renounced by the marriage settlement.

Art. 71. There is no divorce by mutual consent of the spouses. They will not be treated as divorced without a decree by a competent judge.

Art. 72. The following are the causes of divorce:

(1) Adultery of the wife or the husband.

(2) Attempt by one of the spouses against the life of the other, whether as principal or accomplice.

(3) The provocation of one of the spouses by the other to commit adultery or any other crime.

(4) Cruelty.

(5) Serious wrongs; in estimating the gravity of the wrong, the judge must take into consideration the education, social position, and other circumstances of the case.

(6) Bad treatment, which, though not serious, is so frequent as to make the conjugal life intolerable.

(7) Voluntary and malicious desertion.

Art. 73. At any time after the institution of the suit for divorce or previously in cases of urgency the judge may on the application of either party decree the personal separation of the married couple and placing of the wife in some respectable house within his jurisdiction, and he may make an order for the care of the children in accordance with the prescriptions of this code, and for alimony for the wife and for the children who do not remain in the custody of the father, and also for the wife’s necessary legal expenses in the suit.

Art. 74. If either of the spouses be under age a guardian ad litem shall be appointed, who shall be named by the minor, or, in default thereof, by the judge.

Art. 75. Every kind of evidence shall be admitted in this suit excepting that of the husband and wife.

Art. 76. The suit for divorce shall be at an end and the effects of any decree for divorce which may have already been pronounced shall cease when the spouses become reconciled subsequently to the acts which justified the proceedings or were the ground for the divorce. The law presumes reconciliation when the husband cohabits with the wife after having left the habitation common to them. The reconciliation restores the state of things which existed previously to the institution of the suit.

Chapter 10.—Effects of the divorce.

Art. 77. The husband and wife having been separated by a decree for divorce, they may reside where they respectively think convenient, even though it be abroad, but the children in the care of either of them must not be taken out of the country without the leave of the judge of the domicile.

Art. 78. If the wife be of full age she may exercise all the acts of civil life. Either of the spouses who may be under age shall be subject to the prescriptions of this code relative to minors emancipated.

Art. 79. If during the suit the conduct of the husband should give rise to fear of the fraudulent disposal or the wasting of the matrimonial property, the wife may ask the judge of the cause to have an inventory of it made and to place it in charge of another administrator, or that the husband may give security for its value. When the decree for divorce has been pronounced, the spouses may ask for the division of the matrimonial property in accordance with the provisions contained in this code under the title of conjugal partnership.”

Art. 80. The innocent spouse who has not been the cause of the divorce may revoke the donations or advantages which he or she may have made or promised by the marriage settlement to the other spouse, whether to take effect in his or her life-time or after his or her decease.

Art. 81. The children under five years of age shall remain in charge of the mother. Those above that age shall be delivered to the spouse who, in the opinion of the judge, shall be the most eligible for educating them, unless either the husband or the wife can allege a preferential right to have them.

Art. 82. If either of the spouses shall, in consequence of a criminal accusation by the other, have been condemned to imprisonment, reclusion, or banishment, none of the children, whatever their ages may be, can go with the spouse who has to undergo such punishment, except by consent of the other spouse.

Art. 83. Both the father and the mother shall remain subject to their obligations towards their children, no matter which of them may have given cause for the divorce.

Art. 84. The husband who may have given cause for the divorce must contribute to the subsistence of his wife, if she have not sufficient means of her own. The judge shall decide on the sum to be paid and the manner of payment, according to the circumstances of the case.

Art. 85. The spouse who shall have given cause for the divorce shall, if it be absolutely necessary, have the right to have the necessary means of subsistence provided by the other who has the means of providing the same.

Chapter 11.—Of the dissolution of the marriage.

Art. 86. A valid marriage is not dissolved except on the death of one of the spouses.

Art. 87. Although a marriage can be dissolved according to the laws of the country in which it was celebrated it shall not be dissolved in the Republic except in conformity with the preceding article.

Art. 88. The presumed death of the absent or missing spouse does not enable the other to contract a new marriage. Until the death of the absent or missing spouse has been proved the marriage is not considered as dissolved.

Chapter 12.—Of the nullity of the marriage.

Art. 89. The marriage is absolutely null which has been celebrated with any of the “impediments established in sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of article 9, and the declaration of its nullity may be demanded by the spouse who was ignorant of the existence of the impediment and by those who might have opposed the celebration of the marriage.

Art 90. The marriage is nullable—

(1) When it was celebrated with the impediment established in section 4 of article 9. The nullity may be demanded by the incapable spouse and by those who on his or her behalf might have opposed the celebration of the marriage. The nullity can not be demanded after the incapable spouse or spouses shall have attained the legal age, nor whatever may be the age, when the wife shall have conceived.

(2) If the marriage was celebrated with the impediment established in section 7 of article 9, the nullity may be demanded by those who might have opposed the marriage. The nullity may be demanded by the incapable spouse upon recovering reason unless the marital life shall have continued, and by the other if he or she was ignorant of the incapacity at the time of the celebration of the marriage and shall not have continued the marital life after knowing of the incapacity.

(3) When the consent is affected by any of the vices mentioned in article 15, the nullity can be demanded only by the spouse who has suffered from the error, fraud, or violence. The right of action is extinguished if the cohabitation continued in the husband’s case for three days, and in the wife’s for thirty days, after acquiring knowledge of the error or fraud or after suppression of the violence.

(4) In case of the impotence, absolute and manifest, of one of the spouses, previously to the celebration of the marriage, the right of action appertains exclusively to the other spouse.

Art. 91. The action of nullity of marriage can be instituted only during the life-time of both the spouses; nevertheless, one of the spouses may at any time take proceedings against a second marriage contracted by the other spouse, and if the opposition be on the ground of nullity of the former marriage this shall be first adjudicated upon.

Art. 92. The marriage celebrated by the spouse of an absent person with presumption of death can not be impugned except by proving the existence of the absent person.

Chapter 13.—Effects of nullity of marriage.

Art. 93. If the null marriage was contracted in good faith by both spouses it shall produce up to the day on which its nullity is declared all the effects of a valid marriage, not only in relation to the persons and property of the spouses but also in relation to the children.

In such case the nullity shall have the following effects only:

(1) As regards the spouses, all the rights and obligations produced by the marriage shall cease, excepting only the reciprocal obligation of providing maintenance when necessary.

(2) As regards the property, the effects shall be the same as if one of the spouses had died, but until the death of one of them the other shall have no right to the advantages or benefits granted by the marriage settlement to the survivor.

(3) As regards the children conceived during the putative marriage, they shall be considered as legitimate, with the rights and obligations of the children of a valid marriage.

(4) As regards the natural children, conceived previously but born subsequently to the putative marriage between the father and mother, they shall be legitimatized in the same cases as those in which a subsequent valid marriage produces that effect.

Art. 94. If there was good faith on the part of one of the spouses only, the marriage shall, up to the day on which the nullity is declared, also produce the effects of a valid marriage, but only as regards the spouse of good faith and the children.

The nullity in this case shall have the following effects:

(1) The spouse of bad faith cannot require maintenance by the spouse of good faith.

(2) The spouse of bad faith shall have no right to any of the advantages granted to him or her by the marriage settlement.

(3) The spouse of bad faith shall not have any paternal or maternal rights over the children, but the obligations towards them shall continue.

Art. 95. If both spouses contracted the marriage in bad faith it shall not produce any civil effect whatever.

In such a case the nullity shall have the following effects:

(1) The union shall be reputed as concubinage.

(2) As regards the property, the effect shall be the same as in the case of the dissolution of a partnership de facto, the marriage settlement being void and of no effect.

(3) As regards the children, they shall be considered as illegitimate and in the class in which they are placed by the impediment which causes the nullity.

Art. 96. Bad faith of the spouses consists in the knowledge that they had or ought to have had, on the day of the celebration of the marriage, of the existence of the impediment which causes the nullity.

Ignorance or error of law does not constitute good faith. Nor does ignorance or error of fact, which is not excusable unless the error was occasioned by fraud.

Art. 97. The spouse of good faith may sue the spouse of bad faith, and third parties who may have provoked the error, for compensation for losses and damages.

Art. 98. In all the cases mentioned in the preceding articles, the nullity does not prejudice the rights acquired by third parties who in good faith may have entered into contracts with the supposed spouses.

Chapter 14.—Of second or subsequent nuptials.

Art. 99. The wife can not remarry for ten months after the dissolution or annulment of the marriage, except she was then enceinte, in which case she may marry at any time after the birth of her child.

Art. 100. A widow who marries in contravention of the preceding article shall lose the legacies or other benefits given to her by her deceased husband’s will.

Art. 101. The widow who, having children under ago in her custody, shall contract a second marriage must ask the judge to appoint a guardian for them. Should she not do so she will be held responsible to the full extent of her property for any prejudicial results to the interests of her children. The same obligation and responsibility extend to her second husband.

Chapter 15.—General provisions.

Arts. 102 to 104. Marriages celebrated after this law comes into operation shall be proved by the record referred to in article 47 or by a certificate thereof, but when the register has been wholly or partially destroyed or is incomplete, or when the record has been omitted by the public officer, other modes of proof are admissible.

Art. 105. A decree deciding that a record has been destroyed, lost, or omitted must be communicated immediately to the public officer to be transcribed into a supplementary register.

Art. 106. If the destruction, falsification, or loss of a record of marriage should lead to a criminal act, the decree establishing the marriage shall be inscribed in the register of civil status and shall supply the place of the record.

Art. 107. The possession of civil status can not be invoked by the spouses or by third parties as sufficient proof when it is a question of establishing the married status or of claiming the civil effects of marriage. When there is possession of status and the record required by article 47 is in existence, the non-observance of the prescribed formalties can not be alleged against its validity.

Art. 108. The jurisdiction in and decision of causes on divorce or nullity of marriages celebrated either before or after this law comes into operation belongs to the civil courts.

Art. 109. When it is a question of a marriage celebrated previously to this law, and the action of nullity shall be founded on an impediment, the provisions of this law shall apply to the case, but if the action be founded on a defect of form the canon law shall apply.

Art. 110. The action of divorce and nullity of marriage must be instituted in the domicile of the spouses. If the husband have no domicile in the Republic, the action may be instituted in the last domicile which he may have had in it, if the marriage was celebrated in the Republic.

Art. 111. Every decree on divorce or nullity of marriage shall be communicated by the judge immediately after it comes into force to the public officer in charge of the register, so that it maybe noted in the margin of the record of the marriage if it was celebrated subsequently to this law, or in a special register if celebrated previously.

Art. 112. In the capital of the Republic and in the national territories the functions hereby conferred on the public officers shall be fulfilled by the persons in charge thereof, and where there is no register, by the judicial authority of the district.

Art. 113. The officer of civil status who shall not make the publication of the marriage in the prescribed form, or who shall make it without the required declaration and documents, shall incur a fine of $50 to $200.

Art. 114. The public officer who celebrates a marriage without the prescribed publication, except as mentioned in article 51, shall incur a fine of $200.

Art. 115. The public officer who celebrates the marriage of a minor without the necessary consents shall be punished by imprisonment for one to three months and by the loss of his office, and he who celebrates a marriage knowing that an impediment exists which may be a cause of the nullity thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for twelve months to two years,

Art. 116. The contravention by an officer of the civil registry of any of the other provisions of this law shall be punished by a fine of $100 to $500.

Art. 117. The spouse who may have contracted marriage knowing of the existence of any of the impediments mentioned in article 9, and which may have produced the nullity of the marriage, shall be responsible to the other for damages and interest, without prejudice to any criminal proceedings. If the pecuniary loss can not be fixed, the judge shall estimate the moral injury at a sum of money proportioned to the circumstances.

Art. 118. The ministry, pastor, or priest of any religion or sect who shall celebrate a religious marriage without having seen the record referred to in article 47 shall be subject to the responsibilities established by article 147 of the Penal Code, and if he hold any public office he shall be dismissed therefrom.

Art. 119. The application of the penalties established in the foregoing articles shall be asked for by the public ministry from the judge having jurisdiction in the matter.

Art. 120. All the provisions of the code relative to sacrilegious children are repealed. Those who are now called sacrilegious children shall be affiliated according to the civil prescriptions remaining in force.

Art. 121. The public registries, which, according to article 80 of this code, were to be created by the municipalities, shall be created by the respective legislatures.

Art. 122. Article 263 of this code is amended as follows: Legitimate affiliation shall be proved by the inscription of the birth in the civil register, when it exists, and otherwise by the inscription in the parish register, and by the inscription of the marriage in the civil register from the time when this law comes into force and in the parish registers previously. In default of any such inscription, or when it shall have been made under false names or as of parents unknown, the legitimate affiliation may be proved by any other mode of proof.

Art. 123. The widower or widow who, having children by the previous marriage, marries again, is obliged to reserve to the children of the previous marriage, or to their legitimate descendants, the property to which they are entitled by will or intestacy, retaining only the usufruct of the property during his or her life.

Art. 124. The obligation of such reservation ceases if, on the death of the father or mother who contracted the second marriage, there do not exist any children or their legitimate descendants, even though they may leave heirs.