Law Office of Joanne Kleiner

Archives for January 2017

Jan 16

Pennsylvania High Court Allows Termination of “Gay Adoptions”

Because of a recent decision by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, many gay couples who had used adoption as a legal strategy will now be able to get married. Here’s how it works.

Gay Adoptions

Prior to the 2014 ruling that invalidated Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act, gay couples in Pennsylvania frequently used adoption as a means of protecting inheritance rights. However, under state laws, a person could not marry someone he had adopted, so those same couples had to seek to have their adoptions dissolved before they could marry. Many of them ran into obstacles, as judges frequently held that the state’s adoption laws did not allow for the termination or dissolution of an adoption, absent a showing of fraud or misrepresentation.

In a decision handed down on Wednesday, December 21, the state’s high court ruled that Pennsylvania allows an “unopposed annulment or revocation of an adult adoption.” The parties to the lawsuit, who have been in a committed relationship since 1970, are a 69-year-old man and his 80-year-old partner. They had asked the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas to dissolve their adoption in June of 2015, but the court said it lacked the authority to do so under state law.

The court acknowledged that other states, with similar adoption provisions, had permitted adult adoptions to be dissolved under similar circumstances. The court remanded the matter to the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas with instructions to terminate the adoption, so that the parties can get married. The parties to the lawsuit said they thought the matter was a lost cause, as the high court had taken a long time to return a decision.

Contact the Law Office of Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates

For an appointment, contact our office online or call us at 215-886-1266. Let us use our experience, skill, knowledge and resources to help you make informed and effective decisions.

Jan 04

Pennsylvania High Court Says Out-of-State Civil Unions May Be Dissolved in State

PA High Court Allows Dissolution of Out-of-State Civil Unions

Court Allows

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled that a civil union is, for all practical purposes, the equivalent of a marriage, and that the state must grant parties seeking to terminate a civil union the same rights as parties seeking to terminate a marriage. The parties in the lawsuit were joined in a civil union in Vermont in 2002, opted to separate less than six months later, and have not been able to terminate the civil union because of the Pennsylvania Defense of Marriage Act. Unfortunately, since the DOMA was found unconstitutional, the Pennsylvania legislature has not taken any action to modify its family law codes to comply with the new law.

In the aftermath of the invalidation of the Pennsylvania DOMA, the parties in this case (Neyman v. Buckley) filed a divorce complaint in Philadelphia Family Court. The court refused to hear the case, however, arguing that it did not have jurisdiction, as the Pennsylvania statute only allows the state’s courts to divorce parties from “the bonds of matrimony.” The court contended that a civil union did not qualify as “bonds of matrimony.” In addition, the court cited Vermont law (where the parties entered into the civil union), which mad a clear distinction between marriage and civil unions. The court concluded that the lawsuit was more akin to a breach of contract than a divorce.

Pennsylvania’s high court, however, disagreed, ruling that a civil union has the “odor of marriage,” and differs only in matters of sexual orientation and semantics. Because the laws of Vermont do not contradict those of Pennsylvania, and because public policy favors recognizing other states’ law when they don’t conflict, the Pennsylvania courts should recognize the Vermont (and other state) civil union as being the same as a marriage.

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At the office of Joanne E. Kleiner & Associates, we have more than 25 years of family law experience. We’ll help you stay focused on what matters. To schedule an appointment with an experienced Pennsylvania divorce attorney, contact our office online or call us at 215-886-1266.