For widow's pension

Styrian woman divorced her husband eleven times

A Styrian woman divorced her husband eleven times - only to remarry him.(Bild: stock.adobe.com - itakdalee)

While most people are probably happy to get a divorce behind them, a Styrian woman divorced her husband eleven times - only to remarry him later. The Supreme Court has now ruled on abuse of rights. 

After the death of her first husband in 1981, the woman had received a widow's pension. In October 1982, she married her second husband for the first time, from whom she divorced for the first time in 1988. After that, the claimant married her second husband a further eleven times until May 2022 and divorced him just as often, although the two always lived in an upright partnership including a joint household. 

Wife collected widow's pension
After each divorce, the wife again collected the widow's pension, which she was entitled to again after the death of the first spouse, as well as a severance payment amounting to 2.5 times the annual salary of the widow's pension. After the last and thus twelfth marriage breakdown, the pension insurance institution had had enough and refused to pay. 

The woman then sued, but all instances rejected her claim to the widow's pension on the grounds that "the twelfth divorce from her second husband constituted an abuse of the right to divorce". 

Supreme Court confirmed the judgment
The Supreme Court has now confirmed the ruling - also arguing that the woman and her current ex-husband had falsely claimed that the marriage was irretrievably broken: "Rather, it must be assumed that the plaintiff and her second husband asserted this contrary to the facts in the course of the twelfth divorce and thus obtained a divorce by mutual consent, although the conditions for this were not met." The most recent divorce was therefore also invalid. In other words, the Styrian woman and her husband are still married - at least for the time being.