NY Court Says Benefits For Out-of-State Same-Sex Marriage Okay

An Albany , NY court dismissed a challenge to a decision by New York State's Comptroller that treats out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples the same as any other legal marriage in terms of benefits afforded to state employees through the New York State Retirement System.

In 2004 in response to an inquiry by a gay state employee wanting to know if his retirement benefits would cover his family if he went to Canada to legally marry his partner, New York State Comptroller at the time, Alan Hevesi, stated that, “Based on current law, the retirement system will recognize a same-sex Canadian marriage in the same manner as an opposite-sex New York marriage under the principle of comity. That principle has been legal practice pursuant to New York Court of Appeals rulings for many years.”

The New York State Comptroller is the sole trustee of the retirement system - the biggest state plan in the country - which includes 334,000 retirees and 648,000 current employees.

Hevesi’s interpretation of the law matched that of then Attorney General, now Governor Eliot Spitzer, who also said that, under the state’s current laws, same-sex couples who legally married in other jurisdictions should be treated as any other married couple in New York State.

In dismissing the suit judge Thomas J. McNamara said that case did not apply to the question raised by the ADF since the issue before the Court of Appeals had only addressed whether same-sex couples could marry in the state, not whether marriages performed outside of New York State should be considered legal here.

The policy of the Comptroller to recognize same-sex Canadian marriages in the same manner as opposite-sex New York marriages…is legal and not contrary to law,” McNamara said in his written ruling.

The issue that Hevesi addressed for the purpose of retirement benefits involved only same-sex marriages from Canada. Following today's ruling by Judge McNamara, Hevesi's successor, Thomas P. DiNapoli announced that the retirement system would be recognizing all legal out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples including Massachusetts, Spain, Netherlands, South Africa, and Belgium.
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