Married or Not, Gay
Couple Are Ruled
Legally Separated
By ANEMONA
HARTOCOLLIS, NYTimes on the Web, January 9, 2007
A gay couple may have been mistaken
in thinking they were legally married, but they still have to honor the terms of
their separation agreement, which is the equivalent of any other type of
contract, a judge in New York City has ruled.
The couple, Steven Green, 41, a real estate developer, and David Gonzalez, 29,
now a lawyer but a student at the time they met, began living together in 2001,
a decision last week in State Supreme Court in Manhattan indicated.
They shared Mr. Green’s house in Westchester County and a pied-à-terre on
Central Park South, according to the court papers and to Mr. Green, who
responded to questions about the case by e-mail. Mr. Green, who said he
also owns a home on Nantucket, produces independent films and runs “a small
charter airline,” was the wealthier of the two men, and showered his partner
with gifts, including a ski house and two cars, according to court papers.
On Valentine’s Day in 2005, the couple were married in Massachusetts, where
unlike New York, same-sex marriage is legal. But within a few months, the
relationship soured, and Mr. Green’s lawyer drafted a separation agreement,
which both parties signed in September 2005, the court papers said.
Under that agreement, Mr. Gonzalez transferred title of his ski house to Mr.
Green, and Mr. Green agreed to pay his former partner $780,000, according to
court papers. The following January, Mr. Gonzalez filed for divorce in
Manhattan, and Mr. Green countersued, claiming that their marriage had never
been valid and demanding the return of the $780,000.
In her decision, Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob agreed that the marriage had not
been valid, because New York law did not permit gay marriage, and she dismissed
Mr. Gonzalez’s claim for divorce.
But Justice Gangel-Jacob found that the separation agreement between the two men
was a valid contract. New York courts have long held that contracts
between unmarried people living together are as enforceable as those between
people who are not living together, she said.
“While cohabitation without marriage does not give rise to the property and
financial rights which normally attend the marital relation,” Justice Gangel-Jacob
wrote, citing case law, “neither does cohabitation disable the parties from
making an agreement within the normal rules of contract law.”
Mr. Gonzalez’s lawyer, Eric Wrubel, said yesterday that the decision was
important in the wake of the decision by New York’s Court of Appeals in
Hernandez v. Robles last July, which found that there is no right to gay
marriage in New York under existing law. “For homosexual couples, in order
to protect themselves and have orderly protection of their assets, they can now
rely on agreements,” Mr. Wrubel said. Through his lawyer, Mr. Gonzalez
declined to comment.
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