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Law: Marriage Void, but Gay Couple’s Separation Agreement Ruled Valid (New York Law Journal)
Jan 8th, 2025 by Viviane
By Mark Fass
Although the Massachusetts marriage of two New York men is void under the laws of both states, the couple’s separation agreement is legally enforceable, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge has found.
Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob dismissed plaintiff David Gonzalez’s divorce action last week, finding his February 2005 marriage to Steven Green “null and void.”
The judge nonetheless declared the couple’s separation agreement valid, finding that Hernandez v. Robles, the New York Court of Appeals’ recent decision barring same-sex marriage, does not invalidate established principles of contract law.
“New York courts have long accepted the concept that an express agreement between unmarried persons living together . . . is as enforceable as though they were not living together,” Justice Gangel-Jacob held in Gonzalez v. Green, 300673/06, quoting the 1980 decision Morone v. Morone, 50 NY2d 481. “The theory . . . is that while cohabitation without marriage does not give rise to the property and financial rights which normally attend the marital relation, neither does cohabitation disable the parties from making an agreement within the normal rules of contract law.”
gay, law, marriage, legal, new york