Nov 22, 2008 8:56 am US/Eastern
NY Judge: Same-Sex Spouse Gets Husband's Estate
Ruling Is First Of Its Kind For New York State
NEW YORK (AP) ―
A judge has issued the state's first ruling that the survivor of a legal same-sex marriage is entitled to inherit his dead spouse's estate.
Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen ruled that J. Craig Leiby was "the surviving spouse" and sole heir of H. Kenneth Ranftle.
The judge said Leiby, 65, and Ranftle, 54, married in Montreal on June 7, 2008, after being together nearly 25 years. An obituary notice said Ranftle died of lung cancer in Leiby's arms on Nov. 1, 2008.
The judge said marriages that are valid elsewhere are recognized in New York State. She said the only exceptions are marriages that are specifically prohibited by New York law or by "natural law," such as polygamy and incest, and the Leiby-Ranftle marriage fell under neither exception.
Leiby's lawyer, Erica Bell, said Tuesday that the ruling determined her client was Ranftle's sole next of kin.
"This ruling implies, but does not say, if there had been no will, Leiby would (have inherited the estate)," she said.
The state's highest tribunal, the Court of Appeals, has ruled that same-sex marriage is invalid if contracted in New York. But the court also held the state should recognize such marriages if performed where they are legal.
Bell cited an upstate decision, Martinez v. County of Monroe, in which an appeals court on Feb. 1, 2008, ordered the county to extend health coverage to the same-sex spouse of a female employee at a local community college.
"I believe to Judge Glen it was patently obvious" that similar thinking applied in Leiby's case, Bell said of the Jan. 26 ruling.
Ranftle and Leiby, financial and professional services workers, lived and worked in New York.
Ranftle also was survived by three siblings who did not oppose Leiby's probate petition of the multimillion-dollar estate, Bell said.
Gov. David Paterson last year directed state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages if they were valid where they were performed.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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