The Quebec Court of Appeal has overturned a precedent-setting order that a man pay damages to his ex-wife for withholding a get despite having signed an agreement to appear before a Montreal rabbinical court immediately after receiving a provisional civil divorce.
The three judges, ruled unanimously that Superior Court justice Israel Mass was wrong 2 1/2 years ago when he decided that the defendant, Jason Marcovitz, entered into a contract that is civilly enforceable, despite its religious nature.
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The higher court says the federal Divorce Act does not give courts jurisdiction to require the issuance of a get, the Jewish religious divorce, no matter what the divorcing parties have consented to, because courts don’t have the right to enforce a matter of religious obligation. It also ruled that the 1990 amendment to the act requiring spouses to remove barriers to the other’s religious remarriage before a civil divorce is granted was irrelevant in this case because of a legal technicality.