Court Rules Out-Of-State Same-Sex Marriages Count in NY

The day after the President and U.S. Attorney General declared they would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a court decision brought New York its own small victory for marriage equality. An Appellate court yesterday held up a previous decision that the surviving partner in a Canadian same-sex marriage is legally entitled to his spouse's estate in New York.

The story starts in June 2008 when Craig Leiby and Ken Ranftle, partners of more than 20 years, were legally wed in Quebec. When Ranftle died five months later he left his three surviving brothers some $30,000 each and the remainder of his multi-million dollar estate to Leiby, who he also designated as his executor. Then one of Ranftle's brothers sued.

In 2009 Leiby's role was held up in a Surrogate Court, despite claims from Ranftle's brother that such a decision "violated public policy in New York." Yesterday's decision rejected that argument. It helped that Leiby's argument had some strong support—the State AG pitched in with an amicus brief ("Legislature must do more than prohibit the performance of the marriage in New York—it must also explicitly prohibit the recognition of the marriage validly performed in another State or Country.").

This was the first time the Appellate Court First Department had ruled on the validity of same-sex marriage. And according Leiby's lawyer, who also works for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, it means that when it comes to questions of inheritance future "private parties and competing family members will make no headway."