Analysis On The Divorce Dispute Case Of Ma V. Huang

De Facto marriage is the identity combination in which a man and a woman are a couple, featured by facts first1. Based on the standard of division of whether admitted by the current marriage law in our country, the de facto marriage has a broad sense and a narrow sense. Owing to the imperfect provisions on the de facto marriage in the current marriage law in our country, the divergent judgment standards for de facto marriage in the judicial practice result in the situation of “different judgments on the same case” in the cognizance of narrow de facto marriage and the removal of such marriage relationship, which not only causes of the confusion of the parties concerned but also impairs the authority of the law. This paper belongs to the case study,analyzes the disputes of the cited cases and the trial results of the courts, concludes the case and the difficult problems common in the judicial practices and proposes the solution thereto.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, this paper is composed of three parts:Part One introduces the case and debates. This part introduces the facts and evidence of the divorce case of Ma V. Huang, and concludes the two debates over the case, that is, whether the plaintiff and the defendant have the narrow de facto marriage relationship and the judgment standards for the court’s judgment on the two parties with the narrow de facto marriage relationship to divorce and the application of law.There are two positive and negative opinions in the first debate, in which first opinion holds that the evidence of the plaintiff on whether the narrow de facto marriage exists fails to reach the proof standard of “extremely high probability”, thus it cannot be recognized that there is the narrow de facto marriage relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, while second opinion holds that based on the evidence submitted by the plaintiff and combined with the specific facts of the case, the existence of the narrow de facto marriage relationship can form internal identification in the judges’ heart, exclude reasonable suspicion and thus it can be recognized that there is the narrow de facto marriage relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant. Thereare also opinions in the second debate, in which first opinion holds that the court shall apply to the provisions in Article 6 in the Several Opinions of the Supreme Court on the Cases of Cohabitation in the Name of Husband and Wife without Marriage Registration which are Tried by the People’s Court(hereinafter referred to as“Opinions”), that is, if failing to mediate the parties concerned, the court shall allow them to divorce unconditionally, while the second opinion holds that when judging the parties concerned with the narrow de facto marriage relationship to divorce, the court shall take the “the feelings between husband and wife have indeed broken” as the judgment standards, applying to the provisions in Article 32 in the current Marriage Law.Part Two discusses the trial opinions on the cited case. This part analyzes the debates discussed in Part One and expresses the author’s standpoint, that is, in the fist debate, the author favors the second opinion, i.e., there is the narrow de facto marriage relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, and in the second debate, the author favors the first opinion, i.e., the case shall be applicable to the provisions in Article 6 of the Opinions and takes the judgment standards of “failure to mediate” as the judgment on divorce of the parties concerned with de facto marriage relationship by the court. In the meanwhile, on the basis of the discussion on the debates, this part proposes the author’s opinions on the case.Part Three proposes further thinking over the difficult problems in the trial of the cases of de facto marriage relationship. Through the analysis on the cited case, this part concludes the difficult problems in the cases of de facto marriage relationship such as the hard cognizance on the narrow de facto marriage relationship, the hard probation by the parties concerned and the unsound trial effect of the divorce cases of de facto marriage and proposes the solutions thereto.