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
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427
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 7, 2009
___________
Introduced by Sen. ROBACH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the domestic relations 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 amended by
2 chapter 652 of the laws of 2007, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 13-b. Time within which marriage may be solemnized. [A] 1. Except as
4 provided in subdivision two of this section, a marriage shall not be
5 solemnized within twenty-four hours after the issuance of the marriage
6 license, unless authorized by an order of a court of record as herein-
7 after provided, nor shall it be solemnized after sixty days from the
8 date of the issuance of the marriage license unless authorized pursuant
9 to section three hundred fifty-four-d of the executive law. Every
10 license to marry hereafter issued by a town or city clerk, in addition
11 to other requirements specified by this chapter, must contain a state-
12 ment of the day and the hour the license is issued and the period during
13 which the marriage may be solemnized. It shall be the duty of the cler-
14 gyman or magistrate performing the marriage ceremony, or if the marriage
15 is solemnized by written contract, of the judge before whom the contract
16 is acknowledged, to annex to or endorse upon the marriage license the
17 date and hour the marriage is solemnized. A judge or justice of the
18 supreme court of this state or the county judge of the county in which
19 either party to be married resides, or if such party is under sixteen
20 years of age, the judge of the family court of such county, if it shall
21 appear from an examination of the license and any other proofs submitted
22 by the parties that one of the parties is in danger of imminent death,
23 or by reason of other emergency public interest will be promoted there-
24 by, or that such delay will work irreparable injury or great hardship
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03508-01-9
S. 427 2
1 upon the contracting parties, or one of them, may make an order author-
2 izing the immediate solemnization of the marriage and upon filing such
3 order with the clergyman or magistrate performing the marriage ceremony,
4 or if the marriage is to be solemnized by written contract, with the
5 judge before whom the contract is acknowledged, such clergyman or magis-
6 trate may solemnize such marriage, or such judge may take such acknowl-
7 edgment as the case may be, without waiting for such three day period
8 and twenty-four hour period to elapse. The clergyman, magistrate or
9 judge must file such order with the town or city clerk who issued the
10 license within five days after the marriage is solemnized. Such town or
11 city clerk must record and index the order in the book required to be
12 kept by him or her for recording affidavits, statements, consents and
13 licenses, and when so recorded the order shall become a public record
14 and available in any prosecution under this section. A person who shall
15 solemnize a marriage in violation of this section shall be guilty of a
16 misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of
17 fifty dollars for each offense, and in addition thereto, his or her
18 right to solemnize a marriage shall be suspended for ninety days.
19 2. Notwithstanding the twenty-four hour waiting period prescribed in
20 subdivision one of this section, any military personnel whose scheduled
21 military deployment is less than thirty days away may get married within
22 twenty-four hours of receiving a marriage license.
23 § 2. Section 354-d of the executive law, as added by chapter 723 of
24 the laws of 2005, and as renumbered by chapter 652 of the laws of 2007,
25 is amended to read as follows:
26 § 354-d. Time within which marriage may be solemnized; member of the
27 armed forces. 1. Notwithstanding section thirteen-b of the domestic
28 relations law, where either of the parties making application for a
29 marriage license, pursuant to section thirteen of the domestic relations
30 law, is a member of the armed forces of the United States on active duty
31 the marriage of the parties shall not be solemnized within twenty-four
32 hours after the issuance of the marriage license, nor shall it be solem-
33 nized after one hundred eighty days from the date of the issuance of the
34 marriage license. Proof that the applicant is a member of the armed
35 forces of the United States shall be furnished to the satisfaction of
36 the official issuing the marriage license. Every license to marry issued
37 pursuant to the provisions of this section shall state the day and hour
38 the license is issued and shall contain a recital that it is issued
39 pursuant to the provisions of this section.
40 2. Notwithstanding the twenty-four hour waiting period prescribed in
41 subdivision one of this section, any military personnel whose scheduled
42 military deployment is less than thirty days away may get married within
43 twenty-four hours of receiving a marriage license.
44 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
