## Facts

- M (husband) and E (wife) developed an intimate relationship and began living together without marrying.
- During a trip to Chile related to the death of M’s brother, M’s parents pressured the couple to enter into a civil marriage.
- After returning to Spain, E’s parents urged the couple to celebrate a traditional religious marriage.
- The couple had no children and did not want children.
- The relationship deteriorated when M needed to move to Chile for work.
- E had difficulty adjusting to life and customs in Chile.
- The couple separated after approximately two years of marriage.
- A few months after the separation, M filed for an annulment.
- E did not oppose M’s annulment filing.
- The decision is dated 20 June 1988 and is reported at 88 Revista Jurídica de Catalunya: Jurisprudència 521 (1989).

## Issues

1. Whether the parties’ consent to marry was legally defective at formation due to family pressure surrounding the civil marriage and the later religious marriage.
2. Whether the parties’ shared intention not to have children was relevant to the validity of marital consent for purposes of annulment.
3. Whether post-marriage events (relocation to Chile, difficulties living there, deterioration of the relationship, and separation) could support, corroborate, or substitute for a defect existing at the time of consent.

## Decision

- A decision was issued on 20 June 1988 in M v. E, later published at 88 Revista Jurídica de Catalunya: Jurisprudència 521 (1989).
- The matter involved M’s petition for annulment following separation after roughly two years of marriage; E did not oppose the petition.
- Based on the limited publicly available case information provided here, the specific disposition (grant or denial of annulment) and the tribunal’s stated reasoning cannot be confirmed.

## Legal Principles

- Annulment addresses whether a marriage was invalid from the start due to a legally recognized defect at the moment of consent, rather than whether the relationship later failed.
- Family pressure may be relevant if it rises to a level that defeats free and voluntary consent, depending on the governing standard applied by the deciding body.
- A stated intention during marriage formation regarding core marital commitments (including openness to children) may be examined where the law treats exclusion of such commitments as affecting valid consent.
- Later separation, work-related relocation, and marital conflict may provide context for assessing what the parties intended or understood at formation, but such later events do not automatically prove an original defect.
- A non-opposed annulment petition may reduce factual dispute, but an annulment generally still requires proof of a legally sufficient ground under the applicable rules.

## Conclusion

M v. E concerns a couple who married civilly in Chile and later religiously in Spain amid pressure from both families, remained childless by choice, and separated about two years later after M moved to Chile for work and E struggled with day-to-day life there; M then sought an annulment without opposition from E, but the available materials here do not permit a reliable statement of the outcome or the decision’s detailed legal reasoning beyond the case’s citation and basic factual background.


M v. E, Decision of 20 June 1988, 88 Revista Jurídica de Catalunya: Jurisprudència 521 (1989)