Suit would aid
same-sex pairs
By AP from the Home
News Tribune Online, September 17, 2005
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ -- During
their 19-year relationship, Rene Price and Betty Jordan thought of themselves as
married, especially after they registered as domestic partners on the last day
of 2004.
But after Price died unexpectedly in July, Jordan learned that she was not
entitled to the couple's Perth Amboy home, their cars, or the $9,000 in Price's
bank account.
Price's death at age 61 exposed one of the many places where New Jersey's
domestic-partnership law does not treat partners like married couples:
When a domestic partner without a will dies, the surviving partner has no right
to his or her possessions.
Jordan, 66, filed a lawsuit against the state yesterday, contending she should
be entitled to take ownership of Price's estate. Though she's not the
owner, Jordan has continued to live in the home and drive the car that Price
owned.
The effort to expand the law comes as many of New Jersey's prominent gay-rights
advocates are focused on another court battle they hope will give same-sex
couples the right to marry in the state. The activists are critical of
domestic partnerships, contending they extend too few rights.
With the domestic-partnership law, which took effect in July 2004, New Jersey
became the fifth state to recognize same-sex couplings. It gave pairs some
tax benefits, the right to visit one another in hospitals and extended some
health insurance and pension benefits when one partner works for the state
government. To date, more than 3,400 couples have registered.
While the domestic-partnership law enumerates a list of rights, it does not
mention the estate issue.
Jordan's lawyer, Stephen Hyland, is arguing in part that she should be allowed
to keep their home and other possessions because the domestic-partnership law
does not specifically exclude that treatment for surviving domestic partners.
For married couples without wills, the surviving spouse automatically gets the
estate. Hyland said that even when someone has a will before being
married, does not revise it to include his or her spouse, and then dies, there
is a provision to take care of the surviving spouse.
Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, a state gay and lesbian
political organization, said Garden State Equality's goal is not merely an
expanded domestic-partnership law but marriage. If Jordan and Price had
been allowed to marry in New Jersey, we wouldn't be in this situation, he said.
Jordan said when she and her partner took the unceremonious trip to City Hall to
register, they considered it their wedding.
The only reason it took them until nearly six months after the option became
available to sign up, Jordan said, was because she did not know what to wear.
"I was deciding whether I wanted this long white gown. She said, "You go
in your jeans and I'm wearing jeans and that's it,' " Jordan recalled.
She said Price, who had a career as a gym teacher at a public school in
Brooklyn, N.Y., before becoming a bus driver, took care of everything
money-related and spoiled her during their nearly 20-year relationship.
On Valentine's Day, she would send three dozen roses to Jordan's office at the
Perth Amboy Board of Education, where Jordan had a second career as a lunch aide
after retiring from the cosmetics industry.
She also bought Jordan an SUV and tracked down Jordan's mother, who had been
missing from her life for more than 20 years.
When they bought their house in 2000, Price had already picked it out and made a
deposit. She showed it to her partner only the day before closing.
Price collapsed at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority garage on July 28 and
was taken to a hospital, where she died later that day.
It was not until then that Jordan realized there was no will, which could have
averted the legal mess she left behind.
"I didn't think about a will," Jordan said. "I always wanted to go first."
Contributing: Staff writer Suzanne Russell
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