When a 22-year-old single woman showed up at the Registrar General’s Department in October 2020 to register her daughter’s birth, she learned that its records fraudulently reflected her as being married.
As a result of her purported marriage, the woman faced difficulties in registering the birth.
She later filed a court action naming Registrar General Camille Gomez-Jones and Attorney General Ryan Pinder as defendants.
She sought a declaration that the entry to the Register of Marriages with respect to a purported marriage to a man she does not know on July 12, 2019 by Assistant Registrar Dellereese M. Grant is fraudulent.
The woman also sought an order directing the registrar general to amend the Register of Marriages by deleting the marriage entry.
Acting Justice Carla D. Card-Stubbs granted the declaration that the entry on the register is void and of no effect, and a declaration that the entry be deleted.
The judge also ruled that the woman is at liberty to pursue damages and costs.
The woman alleged that she suffered damage as a result of the false entry.
“It is the plaintiff’s inability to register her daughter’s birth that her claim for damages is founded upon,” the ruling stated.
The woman said in an affidavit, “When I returned to the Office of the Registrar General, I was told that my daughter could not get a birth certificate using the affidavit of birth because it did not say that I was married.”
She said the record showed that she was married on July 12, 2019 and that the ceremony was held at the Office of the Registrar General performed by the assistant registrar.
The woman said she does not know her purported husband and was not at the office of the registrar general on July 12, 2019.
The woman said, “I continued to question this marriage and I spoke with Camille Gomez-Jones, the registrar general and first defendant named herein.
“It was revealed that there is no entry on the marriage register of the marriage book of the said Assistant Registrar Dellereese M. Grant and that there was no marriage license or marriage license application on record with the office of the registrar general.
“Further, I did not know and could not recognize the assistant registrar, Dellereese M. Grant, when she entered the room.”
In a letter dated August 15, 2022, the registrar general’s office indicated that it could not provide requested documents.
The office said that a thorough search of the records indicate that the woman and the man, whose age was listed as 32, were married at the Registrar General’s Department on July 12, 2019 by Grant.
The department provided a certified copy of the marriage certificate.
But it was unable to provide a marriage license application, an affidavit of the man’s bachelorhood, a copy of a marriage license or a copy of the assistant registrar’s marriage register.
“In essence, the defendant has offered no explanation as to how the entry dated July 12, 2019 came about: there being no application for a marriage license, no marriage license and no supporting documentation,” the judge stated.
“Inexplicably, a copy of the marriage register of Assistant Registrar Dellereese M. Grant is unavailable.
“Counsel for the defendants was candid and did not attempt to obfuscate the issues. The defendants have not contested the facts relevant to the entry of the record.”
The judge accepted the “uncontroverted evidence” of the woman that she was not involved in a ceremony of marriage with the named individual, and that she was not present at the office of the registrar general before the assistant registrar on July 12, 2019.
“This court is satisfied that there is no evidence of a marriage involving the plaintiff that could cause an entry to be made in the Register of Marriages,” the judge stated.
Given that evidence and having regard to the contents of the letter of the registrar general, the court did not consider it necessary to put the woman to expenses of a futile search for the purported husband or to hear from him if he does in fact exist.
The judge found that, in this matter, the registrar general had no authority to make the entry complained about, there being no marriage ceremony having taken place.
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Woman learned she was recorded as married when she had difficulties registering baby’s birth