The Fourth Room of the Supreme Court (TS) has recognized the right to widow’s pension to a member of a unregistered de facto couple who could not get married because of the declaration of the state of alarm due to Covid.
According to the TS, the applicant had lived with the person responsible for the benefit. for more than 20 years uninterruptedly.
It also points out that, although they were not officially registered as a de facto couple, both They had decided to get married and had started the legal procedures. On March 11, 2020, the Single Civil Registry of Madrid authorized the marriage by order.
However, heThe wedding, scheduled before a notary, was canceled due to the declaration of the state of alarm and the confinement decreed on March 14 due to the Covid health crisis.
Likewise, the Supreme Court adds that the couple could not resume the process, since The woman became ill and died on May 30, 2020.
The ruling considers that a “intuitive, flexible and finalist interpretation” of Social Security standards, in accordance with the social reality of the time in which it is to be applied.
It is also taken into account to recognize the widow’s pension the duration of cohabitationwhich had begun some twenty years before the death of the deceased and continued uninterruptedly until the date of death.
Furthermore, the order of the Single Civil Registry of Madrid stands out, in which it was stated that the two had been heard separately and confidentially by the person in charge, and that the other agreed procedures were carried out, notifying the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which issued report in accordance with the deduced claim.
Likewise, he appreciates that the marriage finally did not take place, “but not due to lack of will of the contracting partieswhich had previously obtained authorization from the Registry, but rather due to a force majeure circumstance: the state of alarm and its consequences, especially the confinement in Spain due to covid”.
