Rejection of the application to remove the divorce judgment pronounced abroad

Facts

This case concerns a Swiss-Venezuelan couple whose marriage was pronounced in Caracas. The husband requested and obtained the divorce in 1953 without the wife, whose domicile was unknown, participating in the proceedings. The divorce judgment was then entered in the civil registry of the couple's place of origin, Seewis im Prättigau, on the instructions of the cantonal supervisory authority. Five years after the husband's death, the wife requested the removal of this entry, which the cantonal authority initially accepted before the Small Council of the Canton of Grisons reversed this decision.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal considers that the entry of the foreign divorce judgment in the Swiss civil registry does not contain a manifest error or inadvertence justifying administrative removal according to Art. 45 para. 2 CC. Although the divorce judgment was pronounced by default, the Federal Tribunal considers that it is not…