## Facts

- Carmen Cabrejo, a Colombian flight attendant employed by American Airlines, died in the December 1995 crash of American Flight 965.
- Cabrejo had five living siblings and a “permanent companion,” Libardo Abraham Mejia, with whom she lived in Colombia.
- Mejia and Cabrejo owned multiple properties together and executed reciprocal wills, but never had a formal civil or religious marriage ceremony.
- Mejia filed a wrongful death action in federal court in Florida, claiming he was Cabrejo’s “surviving spouse” under the Florida Wrongful Death Act (WDA) based on a Colombian relationship he characterized as a common-law marriage equivalent.
- American Airlines disputed that Mejia was a spouse under Colombian law and argued, alternatively, that any purported marriage would be invalid due to Cabrejo’s existing formal marriage under Colombian law.
- While the federal case was stayed, Mejia initiated a Florida probate proceeding seeking a determination that he was Cabrejo’s surviving spouse for WDA purposes.
- The probate court ruled, as a matter of law, that a Colombian “unión marital de hecho” is a marriage that Florida must recognize and declared Mejia the surviving spouse.
- American Airlines appealed the probate order.

## Issues

1. Whether a Colombian “unión marital de hecho” constitutes a “marriage” that Florida courts must recognize as valid.
2. Whether, based on that foreign status, Mejia qualifies as Cabrejo’s “surviving spouse” under the Florida Wrongful Death Act.
3. Whether potential bigamy (because Cabrejo allegedly remained formally married to another person) independently bars recognition of the relationship as a valid marriage in Florida.

## Decision

- The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed the probate court’s order.
- The court held the probate court erred in concluding, as a matter of law, that the Colombian unión is a marriage Florida must recognize.
- The determination that Mejia was the decedent’s surviving spouse for WDA purposes could not stand.

## Legal Principles

- Florida may recognize a foreign marriage valid where created, but the threshold inquiry is whether the foreign relationship is, under that jurisdiction’s law, a marriage rather than a different legal status.
- A foreign domestic relationship that a foreign jurisdiction treats as distinct from formal marriage is not automatically treated as a “marriage” for Florida statutory spousal rights.
- Florida does not recognize bigamous marriages; an existing valid marriage can preclude recognition of a later purported marriage-based status.

## Conclusion

The appellate court reversed a probate ruling that had treated a Colombian “unión marital de hecho” as a marriage for Florida purposes, rejecting a categorical determination of spousal status and thereby undermining Mejia’s claim to “surviving spouse” rights under the Florida Wrongful Death Act.


American Airlines, Inc. v. Mejia, 766 So. 2d 305 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000)