Amd §13-b, Dom Rel L; amd §10, Veterans' Services L
Authorizes certain military personnel who are scheduled to be deployed within thirty days to get married within twenty-four hours of receiving a marriage license.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4356
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 4, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GALLAHAN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the domestic relations law and the veterans' services
law, in relation to allowing marriages within twenty-four hours of
receiving a marriage license
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 13-b of the domestic relations law, as separately
2 amended by section 39 of part PP of chapter 56 of the laws of 2022 and
3 chapter 68 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as follows:
4 § 13-b. Time within which marriage may be solemnized. [A] 1. Except as
5 provided in subdivision two of this section, a marriage shall not be
6 solemnized within twenty-four hours after the issuance of the marriage
7 license, unless authorized by an order of a court of record as herein-
8 after provided, nor shall it be solemnized after sixty days from the
9 date of the issuance of the marriage license unless authorized pursuant
10 to section ten of the veterans' services law. Every license to marry
11 hereafter issued by a town or city clerk, in addition to other require-
12 ments specified by this chapter, must contain a statement of the day and
13 the hour the license is issued and the period during which the marriage
14 may be solemnized. It shall be the duty of the clergyman, magistrate, or
15 one-day marriage officiant, as designated by a town or city clerk pursu-
16 ant to section eleven-d of this article, performing the marriage ceremo-
17 ny, or if the marriage is solemnized by written contract, of the judge
18 before whom the contract is acknowledged, to annex to or endorse upon
19 the marriage license the date and hour the marriage is solemnized. A
20 judge or justice of the supreme court of this state or the county judge
21 of the county in which either party to be married resides, or the judge
22 of the family court of such county, if it shall appear from an examina-
23 tion of the license and any other proofs submitted by the parties that
24 one of the parties is in danger of imminent death, or by reason of other
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07496-01-5
A. 4356 2
1 emergency public interest will be promoted thereby, or that such delay
2 will work irreparable injury or great hardship upon the contracting
3 parties, or one of them, may, make an order authorizing the immediate
4 solemnization of the marriage and upon filing such order with the cler-
5 gyman, magistrate, or one-day marriage officiant performing the marriage
6 ceremony, or if the marriage is to be solemnized by written contract,
7 with the judge before whom the contract is acknowledged, such clergyman,
8 magistrate or such one-day marriage officiant may solemnize such
9 marriage, or such judge may take such acknowledgment as the case may be,
10 without waiting for such three day period and twenty-four hour period to
11 elapse. The clergyman, magistrate, judge, or such one-day marriage offi-
12 ciant, as designated by a town or city clerk pursuant to section
13 eleven-d of this article, must file such order with the town or city
14 clerk who issued the license within five days after the marriage is
15 solemnized. Such town or city clerk must record and index the order in
16 the book required to be kept [by him or her] for recording affidavits,
17 statements, consents and licenses, and when so recorded the order shall
18 become a public record and available in any prosecution under this
19 section. A person who shall solemnize a marriage in violation of this
20 section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof
21 shall be punished by a fine of fifty dollars for each offense, and in
22 addition thereto, [his or her] their right to solemnize a marriage shall
23 be suspended for ninety days.
24 2. Notwithstanding the twenty-four hour waiting period prescribed in
25 subdivision one of this section, any military personnel whose scheduled
26 military deployment is less than thirty days away may get married within
27 twenty-four hours of receiving a marriage license.
28 § 2. Section 10 of the veterans' services law is amended to read as
29 follows:
30 § 10. Time within which marriage may be solemnized; member of the
31 uniformed services. 1. Notwithstanding section thirteen-b of the domes-
32 tic relations law, where either of the parties making application for a
33 marriage license, pursuant to section thirteen of the domestic relations
34 law, is a member of the uniformed services of the United States on
35 active duty the marriage of the parties shall not be solemnized within
36 twenty-four hours after the issuance of the marriage license, nor shall
37 it be solemnized after one hundred eighty days from the date of the
38 issuance of the marriage license. Proof that the applicant is a member
39 of the uniformed services of the United States shall be furnished to the
40 satisfaction of the official issuing the marriage license. Every license
41 to marry issued pursuant to the provisions of this section shall state
42 the day and hour the license is issued and shall contain a recital that
43 it is issued pursuant to the provisions of this section.
44 2. Notwithstanding the twenty-four hour waiting period prescribed in
45 subdivision one of this section, any military personnel whose scheduled
46 military deployment is less than thirty days away may get married within
47 twenty-four hours of receiving a marriage license.
48 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
