Gender Justice | The Volks Case

If a woman has lived with a man for half a century; borne several children with him; looked after him, their children, and their home; and nursed him in the last years of his life, should she be regarded as a stranger to his estate after his death because they had not been legally married? The majority of the Court held that it was not unfair discrimination on the grounds of marital status for the law to grant a right to maintenance from the man's estate if they had been married, but not if they had simply been cohabitants.  In a judgment twice as long as the majority judgment, Justice Sachs expressed his disagreement, saying that the matter should be looked at as one of family law, not matrimonial law.  Recently the Constitutional Court said that it supported the decision of Justice Sachs, but did not go so far as to say the majority decision had been clearly wrong.