Biria v Kiarado

• Jurisdiction: Marruecos
• Court: Supreme Court (Morocco)
• Date: 05 July 1967

Morocco, Supreme Court.

(Ahmed Aba Haniny, President.)

Biria

and

Kiardo.

States as international persons State succession International conventions Protectorate Agreements by Protecting Power establishing ecclesiastical courts Whether jurisdiction survives termination of protectorate The law of Morocco.

Jurisdiction Extraterritorial Ecclesiastical courts in Morocco Whether jurisdiction in matters of personal status survived termination of Protectorate The law of Morocco.

Jurisdiction In general Territorial Over territory in general and persons and property situated therein Ecclesiastical courts in Morocco Whether possessing jurisdiction in disputes between Christians concerning matters of personal status Whether judgment enforceable as a foreign judgment Jurisdiction determined by Franco-Spanish Agreement, 1922 Whether subsisting after termination of protectorate The law of Morocco.

Summary: The facts.The respondent, Mercedes Kiardo, obtained a decree of separation from her husband, Victor Biria, the appellant, from the ecclesiastical court of the Archbishopric of Rabat, in 1956. The decree was upheld by the ecclesiastical court of Algeria in 1961. On the basis of this decree Kiardo instituted proceedings before a Moroccan civil court claiming maintenance for herself and the children of the marriage. The Court of Appeal of Fas awarded custody of the children to the wife and ordered the husband to pay maintenance in respect of both Kiardo and the children, giving as a reason the conclusiveness of the decision of the ecclesiastical court on matters of personal status, and treating the decision as a final decision of a foreign court. On appeal,

Held: that the exercise by a court of jurisdiction on Moroccan territory was an attribute of Moroccan sovereignty, and hence required express authority. The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court in Morocco derived from an agreement between France and Spain of 1922, which had been approved by the Vatican. This was without effect after the termination of the Protectorate over Morocco. Consequently, judgments of the ecclesiastical court must be treated as null and void by the Moroccan authorities. Nor could the judgment of the Algerian Ecclesiastical Court be treated as a foreign judgment capable of execution without consideration of its merits because the conditions imposed by Moroccan law did not apply to relations between Morocco and the Vatican.

The following is the text of the judgment:

An appeal was lodged on...