This pretty travel and fashion blogger has been denied a widow’s pension after the judiciary considered her marriage to her 93-year-old great-uncle 43 days before his death to be a sham.
Mariana Biao de Cerqueira Melo, age not reported, married her great-uncle, tax auditor Jose Biao Cerqueira e Souza in 2010, shortly before his death.
After his passing, the blogger applied for a widow’s pension to the pensions authority (Suprev) in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Bahia.
She was hoping to receive a payout of BRL 15,819.35 (GBP 2,210) plus benefits. However, despite her marriage being legal, her claim was rejected after the judiciary intervened.
In the ruling that was reported this week, judge Ruy Eduardo Almeida Britto of the 6th Public Treasury Court stated: “The plaintiff was not even listed as a dependant on the deceased’s income tax returns.”
He added: “The plaintiff keeps a blog in which she offers tips based on her experiences in Paris – information contradictory to the sustained scarcity of resources presented in the legal documents.”
According to local news site Bahia Noticias, Mariana married her elderly great-uncle by power of attorney, as he “did not even have the motor capacity to sign, leaving the validity of the act doubtful”.
As the court understood it, Mariana “at no point” would have lived under the same roof as her great-uncle, neither before nor after their marriage.
Judge Britto stated: “The records show that, in practice, the only link between them was that of a (great-) uncle and great-niece, as there was never a love relationship between them that would have represented a couple relationship.”
Suprev revealed that it even dispatched an employee to go to the city of Rio de Janeiro in the South East Region of the country to investigate the blogger’s claim that she often stayed at her great-uncle’s apartment in the city – something which residents and building staff say never happened.
Prosecutor Claudia Souza said: “It is surprising that the plaintiff, who is a frequent user of social media, has a blog known in the media and all the time claims to have lived with the deceased person until the advent of his death, had never posted photos of the couple’s daily life or of any important moment for both of them on her social media pages.”
Souza, like Britto, also noted that Mariana tried to feign that she was poor and needed the payout, despite her blog showing photos of her in Paris looking “flashy and well-dressed”.
The court ruled that Mariana must pay court costs and legal fees amounting to BRL 6,000 (GBP 836).
Family marriage is illegal between close relatives, such as siblings or aunties and uncles, in Brazil. Marriage between a great-uncle and a great-niece, however, is legal.
