Bigamist has to pay up
DECEPTION: PART OF CHEATING PARTNER’S PENSION GOES TO TRUST
Woman finds out she isn’t legally married when she wants divorce.
ASecunda woman who only found out that her “husband” of six years was a bigamist when she tried to divorce him has taken him to court for half of his pension payout.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria this week granted a final order to Michelle van Tonder in terms of which R345 000 of her partner Patrick Fann’s pension money is to be kept in trust pending her application for half of his pension and her legal costs.
The unemployed Van Tonder said in court papers she had believed that she and Fann, a geologist who now lives in the Eastern Cape, were married after a wedding ceremony in Pretoria in September 2009.
They even had a second ceremony in November 2009 after the person who presided over the wedding told her that Fann’s first wedding had not been legal as it “took place outside”.
She received a wedding certificate and thereafter lived with Fann in Rustenburg for six years as husband and wife.
Their relationship broke down after he cheated on her with another woman, but she only found out that home affairs had no record of their marriage after she consulted an attorney to start divorce proceedings.
When she confronted Fann, he admitted that he had known all along that they were not legally married. He told her he wanted to reach a settlement as he wanted to move to the Cape.
An agreement in terms of which Fann admitted that a universal partnership had existed between him and Van Tonder and that she was entitled to half of the proceeds from the sale of a house in the Northern Cape and half of his pension payout was thereafter confirmed as a court order.
Van Tonder claimed Fann had, however, unbeknown to her, arranged for his pension to be paid out five days before the court order was granted and she feared she would never see her half of the proceeds.