  PROMISES OF MARRIAGE          ġ CAP. 5.             1
CHAPTER 5
PROMISES OF MARRIAGE LAW
To abolish the power of the courts to order the specific performance of
promises and contracts of marriage, and to provide another remedy for the
breach thereof.
(28th June, 1834) *
Enacted by PROCLAMATION No. VI of 1834.
Short title.
Marriage Law.
Courts not to have 
power to order 
specific 
performance of 
promises of 
marriage.
2. No court in Malta shall have jurisdiction, power, or
authority, to compel, adjudge, decree or order any person
specifically to perform or complete any promise of marriage made
to another, or any contract or agreement entered into with another
for the solemnization of marriage.
Action for 
damages.
3. (1) Nevertheless, if any person competent by law to enter
into obligations, or any person who is not so competent from being
under paternal or other lawful authority or limitation, but who acts
with the consent duly granted of the person or persons in whom
such authority is legally vested, shall make or enter into any such
promise, contract, or agreement as hereinbefore mentioned, and
shall wilfully and unlawfully commit a breach thereof, or shall,
after making or entering into such promise, contract, or agreement,
have unlawfully refused to perform the same within a reasonable
time, after request made, (of the reasonableness of which time the
court shall be the competent judge), the party injured shall be
entitled to maintain an action for damages against the party guilty
of such breach or non-performance, in such manner, and subject to
the same rules, as are by law prescribed, for the recovery of
damages for the breach of any other promise, contract, or
agreement.
(2) In any such action the party injured shall be entitled to
recover, over and above and in addition to such damages and costs
as may have been actually suffered and be due, according to law,
such a reasonable sum of money, in compensation for the injury
suffered, as to the court in its discretion, having regard to the
character and station in life of the parties as well as to all other
circumstances of the case, shall seem meet, and as the court on the
trial of the cause, shall award and assess.
(3) An appeal shall lie from any decision of the court in the
same manner and subject to the same rules as are by law prescribed
in regard to appeals from judgments or decrees relating to a breach
of any other promise, contract, or agreement.
*Published on the 2nd of July, 1834, Government Gazette No.1224.
