Filed Date: 6/22/1976
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
HON. JOHN B. LAWLESS City Court Judge, Elmira
This is in reply to your request for an opinion as to whether or not the requirement in Domestic Relations Law, §
Domestic Relations Law, §
"5. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, where either or both of the parties is under the age of eighteen years a marriage shall be solemnized only by those authorized in subdivision one of this section or by (1) the mayor of a city or by (2) a justice or a judge of a court of record, or by (3) a judge or justice of any city court, or by (4) a judge of the district court or, (5) by the clerk of a city of the first class of over one million inhabitants or any of his deputies designated by him for such purposes as provided in section eleven-a of this chapter or by a village or town justice where the parents of any of such parties under the age of eighteen years shall make written request therefor and said parents are personally present at such solemnization."
This statute is, in effect, a list of those persons authorized to solemnize marriages where either or both of the parties is under the age of 18 years. Each of the categories listed in this provision is separate and distinct from the others (the word "or" being a coordinating conjunction introducing alternatives, i.e., different possibilities). The provisions of subparagraph 5 of Domestic Relations Law, §
The second category in section 11(5) (5) is a village or town justice, where the parents of any parties to the marriage under the age of 18 years make a written request therefor and the parents are personally present at the solemnization of the marriage. It seems clear that if the requirement of personal presence of the parents in Domestic Relations Law, §
We conclude, therefore, that the requirements of a written request by the parents of parties under the age of 18 years and the requirement that such parents be personally present at the solemnization of the marriage, as set forth in Domestic Relations Law, §