A 31 year old Icelandic woman has been unsuccessful in divorcing her husband, despite having left him twelve years ago and filed for divorce six years ago. The reason the divorce has not been legally finalized is that Bytautas must be served a court summons, and since he cannot be located the summons has not been served.
Marriage ended in 2003 – husband disappeared in 2006
Sæbjörg Rut Guðmundsdóttir was married to a Lithuanian national, Mindaugas Bytautas for a short time before leaving him in 2003. Six years later she filed for divorce. In the meantime, however Bytautas had left Iceland. Nothing is known of his whereabouts since 2006. According to the authorities in Lithuania Bytautas does not live in the country and they do not know where he is located, which means he cannot be served the divorce papers.
This is the second time Sæbjörg is attempting to have the courts confirm her divorce. An earlier case was unsuccessful. Icelandic courts dismiss divorce cases if either partner has not been served the divorce papers or if all avenues to locate the spouse have not been exhausted.
Intentional disappearances to cause former partners trouble?
Dögg Pálsdóttir, Sæbjörg‘s lawyer, tells local newspaper Fréttablaðið that she has seen similar cases before, arguing that in some cases the disappeared spouse seems to be delibaretely making life hard for his former partner: You would think there should be some legal tools people could use in these situations. In some cases the you see pure malice at work, people leave their former spouse in a situation where he cannot get a legal divorce.
UPDATE:
According to lawyers Iceland Insider has talked to it should be enough at this point to publish the summons in the Government Gazette for the divorce proceedings to go ahead.
A 31 year old Icelandic woman has been unsuccessful in divorcing her husband, despite having left him twelve years ago and filed for divorce six years ago. The reason the divorce has not been legally finalized is that Bytautas must be served a court summons, and since he cannot be located the summons has not been served.
Marriage ended in 2003 – husband disappeared in 2006
Sæbjörg Rut Guðmundsdóttir was married to a Lithuanian national, Mindaugas Bytautas for a short time before leaving him in 2003. Six years later she filed for divorce. In the meantime, however Bytautas had left Iceland. Nothing is known of his whereabouts since 2006. According to the authorities in Lithuania Bytautas does not live in the country and they do not know where he is located, which means he cannot be served the divorce papers.
This is the second time Sæbjörg is attempting to have the courts confirm her divorce. An earlier case was unsuccessful. Icelandic courts dismiss divorce cases if either partner has not been served the divorce papers or if all avenues to locate the spouse have not been exhausted.
Intentional disappearances to cause former partners trouble?
Dögg Pálsdóttir, Sæbjörg‘s lawyer, tells local newspaper Fréttablaðið that she has seen similar cases before, arguing that in some cases the disappeared spouse seems to be delibaretely making life hard for his former partner: You would think there should be some legal tools people could use in these situations. In some cases the you see pure malice at work, people leave their former spouse in a situation where he cannot get a legal divorce.
UPDATE:
According to lawyers Iceland Insider has talked to it should be enough at this point to publish the summons in the Government Gazette for the divorce proceedings to go ahead.
