acte de mariage

The petitioners were fourteen same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners were deceased. They lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. Those states defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman under their constitutions and statutes. The petitioners filed suits in federal district courts in their home states. They sought marriage licenses or recognition of marriages lawfully performed elsewhere. James Obergefell and John Arthur traveled from Ohio to Maryland to marry aboard a medical transport plane because Arthur suffered from ALS; Obergefell later sought to be listed as surviving spouse on Arthur's death certificate. April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, Michigan nurses, adopted three children but could not both serve as legal parents under state adoption rules. Army Reserve Sergeant Ijpe DeKoe and Thomas Kostura married in New York before DeKoe's deployment to Afghanistan and later settled in Tennessee. Each district court ruled in the petitioners' favor. The respondents appealed. The Sixth Circuit consolidated the cases and reversed the district court judgments. The petitioners sought certiorari, which the Supreme Court granted. Same-sex couples had begun establishing families after substantial cultural and political developments in the late twentieth century. Earlier litigation had addressed the legal status of gays and lesbians, including challenges that reached the Supreme Court in Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas.

Anne P. Graham and Dennis J. Graham were married on August 5, 1968, in Denver, Colorado. Throughout the six-year marriage Anne worked full-time as an airline stewardess and contributed seventy percent of the financial support used for family expenses and Dennis's education. Dennis attended school for approximately three and one-half years of the marriage and obtained a bachelor of science degree in engineering physics and a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Colorado. The couple jointly managed an apartment house and Anne performed the majority of the housework and cooking. No children were born during the marriage and no marital assets were accumulated. On February 4, 1974, the parties jointly filed a petition for dissolution in the Boulder County District Court. Anne did not make a claim for maintenance or attorney fees. After a hearing on October 24, 1974, the trial court found that the education obtained by Dennis during the marriage was jointly-owned property. The court evaluated the future earnings value of the M.B.A. at $82,836 and awarded Anne $33,134 payable in monthly installments of $100. The Colorado Court of Appeals reviewed the trial court's decision in Graham v. Graham, 38 Colo. App. 130, 555 P.2d 527 and reversed it. The Supreme Court of Colorado then took up the case.

Alicia Erickson, the daughter of decedent Ronald K. Erickson, appealed from a trial court judgment that affirmed the Probate Court’s decree admitting her father’s will to probate in favor of defendant Dorothy Erickson, the executrix of the estate. On September 1, 1988, the decedent executed a will while unmarried and the father of three daughters. Two days later, on September 3, 1988, he married the defendant. He died on February 22, 1996. The will named the defendant as executrix and guardian of the decedent’s daughters and included among its beneficiaries the defendant’s four children—Thomas Mehring, Christopher Mehring, Maureen Mehring, and Kathleen Mehring—whose identities the trial court admitted into evidence. The plaintiff filed a motion in limine before trial seeking to limit proof to the will, the marriage certificate, and the death certificate. The defendant responded with a detailed offer of proof concerning the decedent’s intent and his communications with his attorney. The trial court granted the motion in limine as to most extrinsic evidence of intent but denied it regarding the beneficiaries’ identities. It then concluded after a de novo hearing that the will’s provisions and the two-day interval between execution and marriage supplied clear and convincing evidence that the instrument accounted for the contingency of marriage. The plaintiff appealed to the Appellate Court, which transferred the case to the Supreme Court pursuant to Practice Book § 4023 and General Statutes § 51-199 (c). The defendant cross-appealed the evidentiary ruling excluding the balance of her proffered proof.

Miguel Braschi resided with Leslie Blanchard in a rent-controlled apartment at 405 East 54th Street from the summer of 1975 until Blanchard's death in September 1986. Stahl Associates Company owned the apartment building. In November 1986, Stahl Associates served Braschi with a notice to cure, claiming he was a mere licensee with no right to occupy the apartment because only Blanchard was the tenant of record. In December 1986, Stahl Associates served a notice to terminate, giving Braschi one month to vacate. Braschi initiated an action for a permanent injunction and a declaration of his entitlement to occupy the apartment. He moved for a preliminary injunction. The Supreme Court found that the long-term interdependent nature of the ten-year relationship fulfilled the definitional criteria of family and issued the preliminary injunction. The Appellate Division reversed, holding that the regulation protects only family members within traditional, legally recognized familial relationships. Braschi appealed. The two men had lived together as permanent life partners for more than ten years. They regarded one another as spouses, their families were aware of the relationship, and they attended family functions together. Braschi listed the apartment as his address on his driver's license and passport. They shared all financial obligations, maintained joint checking and savings accounts, and Blanchard executed a power of attorney in Braschi's favor and named him beneficiary of his life insurance policy and primary legatee of his estate.