Pennsylvania Judge Recognizes Common Law Marriage From 2001 After Man Fails to Survive Gay Marriage Ruling

Do you know what same sex marriage in West Palm Beach  has to do with inheritance law? Did you know that denying someone a marriage license could also change his or her rights to devise certain property in Florida? Check out this recent case out of the State of Pennsylvania where a couple’s common-law marriage was recognized retroactively after one spouse’s death.

Florida Same Sex Marriage

• Same sex marriage was recently legalized throughout the United States in a landmark Supreme Court case.
• Do you know how that affects same sex couples in West Palm Beach?
• Florida homestead laws limit the ability of a person with minor children to devise property and a non married couple cannot avoid this predicament by owning the house together in the way a married couple can.
• Courts all around the State including in West Palm Beach were aware of the problem that unrecognized unions posed.
• Inheritance is only one such area- but it is an important one.
• What remedies do you expect the courts to fasten in these strange situations?
• One court in Pennsylvania tried a novel approach in Bucks County (outside of Philadelphia Pennsylvania)

Judge Recognizes a 2001 Same Sex Union as Common Law Marriage Retroactively

• A common law marriage is a marriage without a ceremony that is recognized based on the longevity of co-habitation.
• Florida and many other states traditionally have been straying away from common law marriage.
• Do you know the Florida rules on common law marriage for West Palm Beach?
• A couple had been living together for the minimum period starting in 2001 and unfortunately one of them had passed away before the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.
• This was really a fight over death benefits and taxes as the spouse battled other family members who claimed rights through relation.
• The decision appears to also apply to common law marriages entered into even before 2001; do you think this is the right solution?
• What can be done to ensure inheritance and death rights are properly accounted for in a world where a whole new view of family unions is arising?
• Is the right move for West Palm Beach?
• What do you think?