Family Law

NY Must Recognize Same-sex Marriages

ROCHESTER—A New York appeals court has ruled that a gay couple's marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Friday reversed a judge's ruling in 2006 that Monroe Community College did not have to extend health benefits to an employee's lesbian partner.

Patricia Martinez, a word processing supervisor, sued the school in 2005, arguing that it granted benefits to heterosexual married couples but denied them to Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden.

The couple formalized their relationship in a civil union ceemony in Vermont in 2001 and were married in Canada in 2004.

The college refused to add Golden to the health care benefits because its contract with the Civil Service Employees Association did not address benefits for same-sex partners. Since then, the contract has been enhanced to extend benefits to an employee's domestic partner.

State Supreme Court Justice Harold Galloway dismissed Martinez's lawsuit in August 2006, saying that the state does not recognize same-sex marriages. The state legislature currently defines marriage as limited to the union of one man and one woman, he wrote.

The appellate judges disagreed, determining that there is no legal impediment in New York to the recognition of a same-sex marriage.

The state legislature may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad, the ruling said. Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.

A copy of the decision is posted here: Martinez v. County of Monroe.

Full post as published by NJ Domestic Partnership on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).