2008: Martinez – New York recognizes out-of-state marriages

Good news: New York State

Don’t take no for an answer…

In 2004, New York State residents Patricia Martinez and Lisa Ann Golden went to Ontario, Canada and got married. When they returned home, Patricia, an employee of Monroe Community College, applied to her employer for spousal health care benefits to cover Lisa Ann – a benefit granted to her co-workers with opposite-sex spouses.

The college said no. Undaunted, Patricia sued. The lower court also said no. Still undaunted, she appealed to the state’s intermediate court.

And now in February 2008, the intermediate court says yes in Martinez v. County of Monroe. While not referencing the earlier cases, the court confirms and broadens the lower-court rulings in Godfrey v. Spano and Godfrey v. Hevesi, both of which recognized Canadian marriages of same-sex New York couples.

For well over a century, New York has recognized marriages solemnized outside of New York unless they fall into two categories of exception: [those explicitly prohibited by law, and those involving incest or polygamy or that are] offensive to the public sense of morality to a degree regarded generally with abhorrence. …

The Court of Appeals noted [in New York’s Hernandez v. Robles] that the Legislature may enact legislation recognizing same-sex marriages [citation] and, in our view, the Court of Appeals thereby indicated that the recognition of plaintiff’s marriage is not against the public policy of New York. It is also worth noting that, unlike the overwhelming majority of states, New York has not chosen, pursuant to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (28 USC § 1738C), to enact legislation denying full faith and credit to same-sex marriages validly solemnized in another state.

Thus, we conclude that plaintiff’s marriage to Golden, valid in the Province of Ontario, Canada, is entitled to recognition in New York in the absence of express legislation to the contrary.

[emphasis in original]

A result of the Spano, Hevesi, and Martinez chain is the overturning of the 2006 Funderburke ruling (see Summer 2006: Disappointment). In 2006, a New York lower court ruled against Duke Funderburke, saying that he did not have the right to obtain spousal health benefits from his employer – a school district – for his partner Bradley Davis, even though they had been partnered 43 years and were married in Canada.

In March 2008, that earlier ruling is overturned at Funderburke’s request by a New York intermediate court because, the court reasons, if left standing it could “be used as precedent in future cases, causing confusion of the legal issues in this area of the law”.

Timeline key: progress (green), no progress (red), pending court cases (purple),
events that are neutral, not directly related, or with both positive and negative effects (black)