Moroccan Woman Wins Widow’s Pension Against Spanish Social Security

A marriage celebrated in Morocco can grant the right to a widow’s pension in Spain, even without registration in the Spanish civil registry. This is what the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia recognized in a decision favorable to a woman married in Morocco in 1965 to a man who subsequently acquired Spanish nationality.

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Spain’s National Social Security Institute had refused her pension in October 2020. The administration believed she did not meet the necessary conditions, lacking proof of marriage registration in the Spanish civil registry.

The widow contested this decision. She explained that it was impossible for her to register the marriage in Spain, as this process required her husband’s birth certificate, born in 1938 and registered in old civil registries of the Sahara. According to her appeal, some of these documents were untraceable or had been lost.

According to El Debate, the social chamber of the TSJC ultimately annulled Social Security’s position. The judges determined that registration in the Spanish civil registry could not be considered the sole means of proving the right to the pension.

The validity of the marriage was not contested

Catalan justice relied on the doctrine of the Spanish Constitutional Court and Supreme Court. It recalls that the absence of registration in the civil registry cannot penalize the person requesting a benefit when the validity of the marriage celebrated abroad has never been questioned.

In this case, the central point was not merely administrative. The question was whether the administration could refuse a pension solely because an old marriage, celebrated outside Spain, had not been transcribed in Spanish registries.

The judges answered in the negative, provided that sufficient proof of the union was presented and the matrimonial bond was not contested. The decision thus emphasizes that the fight against fraud does not allow the administration to add conditions not provided for by law.

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The widow’s lawyer welcomed a decision that goes beyond the individual case. According to her, justice sanctions the fact of transforming the absence of registration into an unfavorable presumption against a person claiming a benefit.