Gay or Straight, Contracts are Contracts

Fascinating legal ruling concerning a gay marriage split. Couple Steven Green and David Gonzalez were married in Massachusetts on Valentine's Day 2005, after four years of living together. Then a few months after the marriage, they separated and started their courtship with the law. From the NY Times:

...Mr. Green’s lawyer drafted a separation agreement, which both parties signed in September 2005, the court papers said.

Under that agreement, Mr. Gonzalez transferred title of his ski house to Mr. Green, and Mr. Green agreed to pay his former partner $780,000, according to court papers. The following January, Mr. Gonzalez filed for divorce in Manhattan, and Mr. Green countersued, claiming that their marriage had never been valid and demanding the return of the $780,000.

Aha! Green was counting on the fact that gay marriage is not legal in New York State. But the judge who heard the case, Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob, found that the separation contract was very legal. She wrote in her decision, "While cohabitation without marriage does not give rise to the property and financial rights which normally attend the marital relation, neither does cohabitation disable the parties from making an agreement within the normal rules of contract law.” But she did throw out Gonzalez's divorce petition.

During the relationship, Green, a real estate developer, had given Gonzalez two cars and a ski house during their relationship (Gonzalez returned the ski house), and the couple had lived in Westchester County and on Central Park South. Green's lawyer says he will appeal the decision.