Death of the breadwinner and the continuation of the duty of spousal support : discrepancies and inequalities for different categories of surviving partners
Abstract
This note considers the extension of the duty of spousal support
after the death of the breadwinner by comparing the rights of
different categories of surviving maintenance claimants, who
tend to be mostly women: widows of the deceased, unmarried
intimate partners of the deceased and ex-wives and partners of
the deceased. Financial support can be provided from the
deceased estate in the form of a right to share in the joint
matrimonial estate, a right to intestate succession, a right to
claim from the estate in terms of the Maintenance of Surviving
Spouses Act and a right to claim for loss of support from third
parties who caused the death of the breadwinner. In comparing
different categories of women, it emerges that the law
disproportionately benefits widows over other partners, while the
rights of ex-spouses are gradually reduced by the jurisprudence.
There is also a discrepancy between rights to claim against
deceased estates, which favour widows, on the one hand, and
rights to claim against third parties, which are available to a far
larger group of surviving maintenance claimants, on the other
hand. The note analyses the gendered causes and
consequences of these differences.
Collections
- PER: 2020 Volume 23 [48]