The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has recognized the right of a Senegalese woman to collect a widow’s pension after the death of her husband, a Spanish national, although the marriage was celebrated in Mauritania. The marriage was never registered in the Spanish Civil Registry, and despite this, Social Security will have to pay this benefit to the woman.
The Social Chamber thus rejects the appeal presented by the National Social Security Institute (INSS), which had denied the benefit considering that the marital relationship was not accredited in accordance with Spanish laws.
They deny a widow’s pension to a woman after the Justice determines that it is incompatible with the retirement pension
They ask her to return 6,480.82 euros of her maternity supplement because her husband also received it and the court says that both of them can collect it
The judicial resolution, dated last April, confirms the previous ruling issued by a court in Barcelona and recognizes the widow with a pension calculated on a regulatory basis of 2,182.28 euros per month, with 52% corresponding to the widow’s benefit and retroactive effects from March 2022, one day after the death.
In total, the widow will earn approximately 1,134.78 euros gross per month. As appears in the ruling STSJ CAT 3014/2026, the woman married a Spanish citizen in Mauritania in 2005. When her husband died, she applied to Social Security for a widow’s pension and death aid.
But the INSS rejected it, as did the death aid (a benefit intended to cover the expenses of the funeral services of a deceased relative). In the case of the pension, he argued it by explaining that the woman had not proven a marriage in accordance with what is required by the General Social Security Law (LGSS).
Court says registration does not create marriage
The Chamber maintains that the decisive element to access the widow’s pension is to prove the real and valid existence of the marriage bond and not its subsequent registration, in this case, in the Civil Registry. The magistrates rely on the doctrine of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, which considers it disproportionate to deny a widow’s pension just because the wedding celebrated abroad had not been administratively registered in Spain.
The ruling recalls that granting the registry registration a constitutive value is equivalent in practice to considering a valid marriage non-existent. The ruling states, verbatim, that it would be “denying the status of spouse to someone who has demonstrated their valid marital bond.”
It is highlighted that Social Security regulations only require the status of “surviving spouse” to access the benefit, without imposing as an additional requirement the registration of the marriage in the Spanish Civil Registry.
You will receive 46.50 euros in death aid
The Justice also agrees with the plaintiff to collect 46.50 euros in death aid since it remembers that the legislation presumes, unless proven otherwise, that the closest relatives are the ones who bear the funeral expenses.
Since the INSS did not provide any evidence to dismantle this presumption, the magistrates maintained this economic recognition. The resolution can be appealed before the TS in cassation appeal for the unification of doctrine.