Man Must Pay Alimony Despite Ex-Wife’s Same-Sex Partnership
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LOS ANGELES — A judge has ordered a man to continue paying alimony to his ex-wife — even though she’s in a registered domestic partnership with another woman and even uses the other woman’s last name.
California marriage laws say alimony ends when a former spouse remarries, and Ron Garber thought that meant he was off the hook when he learned his ex-wife had registered her new relationship under the state’s domestic partnership law.
An Orange County judge didn’t see it that way.
The judge ruled that a registered partnership is cohabitation, not marriage, and that Mr. Garber must keep writing the checks, $1,250 a month, to his ex-wife, Melinda Kirkwood. Mr. Garber plans to appeal.
The case highlights questions about the legal status of domestic partnerships, an issue the California Supreme Court is weighing as it considers whether same-sex marriage is legal. An appeals court upheld the state’s ban on same-sex rites last year, citing the state’s domestic partners law and ruling that it was up to the Legislature to decide whether gays could wed.
