A marriage annulment that removed a British Columbia woman as a beneficiary from her ex-husband’s pension plan has been overturned after a judge determined a “fraudster” had agreed to terms in court.
Gina Elizabeth Zant told Kamloops Superior Court she was shocked to learn earlier this year that her marriage to Warren Thomas Zant had been annulled, along with her legal interest in his pension.
The couple married in the Cook Islands in 1999, but have been separated since 2016 under a settlement that entitles Gina Zant to continue receiving full maintenance coverage under her ex’s benefits.
The terms of the annulment, which changed the pension beneficiary of one Marina Du Plessis Bayliss, were decided at a court hearing last fall attended remotely by someone posing as Gina Zant — which was also news to the actual Gina Zant.
“I am unable to determine, on the evidence before me, who actually appeared on the application,” Judge Dennis Horry wrote in a Nov. 18 ruling.
“However, I am satisfied that whoever was present on the phone on this date is a fraud.”
Ahead of the annulment hearing last year, the court also received a statement purported to be from Gina Zant, which said their 1999 marriage was “not legally binding” because at the time she was still married to her previous husband.
“I have made the decision not to tell Warren,” the statement read. “The plaintiff never asked me for the divorce papers and believed everything I told him.
Horry found that simply wasn’t the case. Gina Zant was able to produce a copy of her divorce certificate, which was issued by the British Columbia Supreme Court months before Zant was married.
An email presented by Warren Zant in his annulment application, which purported to be from Cook Island officials saying their marriage had been deemed “invalid” since January 2000, was also likely fake, Horry said .
Overall, the judge found that there was sufficient reason to believe that the ex-husband and others representing him in court were “unreliable.”
“My impression is that Warren Zant and his representatives are making accusations that suit their purposes at the time without considering the validity of those accusations,” Horry wrote.
The judge cast doubt on the claim that the ex-husband had been “legally incompetent” since 2012 – noting that this would have made him unable to file his annulment in person – and rejected the argument that he should be entitled to compensation for damage to his health and mental well-being, setting aside the annulment he had granted last November.
“I am confident that where an impostor appears in an application, representing himself as a party, without the consent of the actual party, there is sufficient cause to set aside the orders made in the application,” Horry wrote.
CTV News reached out to Warren Zant on Facebook and received a message from a person identifying herself as Marina Du Plessis Bayliss, who said Zant couldn’t comment on the verdict because she “can’t figure things out.”
Instead, the message referred questions to two of Zant’s representatives. This article will be updated if a response is received.
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