A recently widowed woman found out that she was not entitled to a widow's pension because her deceased husband was married to somebody else.

The court sentence describes the case involved as “devilishly difficult.” The latest judicial result is that an appeals court in Madrid has denied the widow in Granada 168,298 euros compensation.

The widow was married to the deceased for six years, completely unaware that he was still married to a previous wife. It all came to light when both widows claimed the same pension.

In the eyes of the law, the first marriage prevails over the second one. The second wife had been receiving a widow’s pension for several months when the first wife applied for a pension.

So, not only did the grieving (second) widow have her pension stopped, but she was also told to return what she had already received, which amounted to just over 11,000 euros. She, in turn, sued the state for a failure in the Civil Registry in Granada, where her marriage was registered.

She considers that the Registry should not have permitted the marriage. For this reason she considers that the State owes her 168,298 euros in compensation. The judge, however, disagrees and puts the blame on the deceased who deliberately deceived everybody concerned, including the Registry.

The judge does consider, however, that she has a reasonable case to demand a widow’s pension as she had married in good faith, unaware of an illegal impediment to the marriage.

The couple had married in 2008 and the man died in 2014 and she was given the pension but in 2015 the original wife heard of his death, claimed a pension and the smelly stuff hit the fan.

(News: Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)