Certificate of living person
Certificate of living person
"Divorced and retired, I have been paying a pension to my ex-wife since 1979. On numerous occasions I have asked my ex-wife's lawyer to provide me with a certificate stating that she is still alive, but I have never received it. When I didn't receive the certificate, I stopped paying the pension.
My question is this: do I have the right to demand that my ex-wife provide me with a certificate stating that she is still alive?"
Max, Geneva
After a divorce, the obligation to provide maintenance ceases on the death of the debtor or creditor. If your ex-wife is no longer alive, it is true that you are released from your obligation to pay her monthly pension.
However, Article 32 of the Civil Code states that anyone who, in order to exercise a right, claims that a person is dead, must prove the alleged fact. It is therefore not up to your ex-wife to prove that she is still alive, but up to you to prove that she is dead. You cannot therefore require her to prove to you that she is alive.
With the exception of cases where your wife's body has not been found in such circumstances that her death must be considered certain, a person's death must generally be proven by civil status records. You should therefore contact the civil registry of the canton in which your ex-wife is domiciled. If she lives in Geneva, you can visit the Geneva civil status website. It lists all deaths since 1 April 2004. Under the heading "Deaths", then "Death notices", you can carry out a search using various criteria, such as surname, first name or address. In this way, you can easily find out whether your ex-wife has died.
It should be noted that the law states that if you are unable to prove the death of the deceased by a civil status document, it is possible to do so by "any other means", by which is meant, in particular, hearing witnesses before a judge.
In short, as long as there has been no declaration of death, your ex-wife is presumed to be alive. You cannot, therefore, simply on the basis of presumptions, stop paying the maintenance contribution.
