CT Court Won't Anull Massachusetts Marriage

April 1, 2005

HARTFORD — A Connecticut lesbian couple is in a legal catch 22 in an attempt to have the marriage the women had in Massachusetts annulled.

Anita Ann Albanese and a woman identified in court papers only as Lane were married in Provincetown before Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney invoked a law making it illegal to issue a marriage license to people who could not legally marry in their own state.

The law nullified the marriage, although the couple's civil marriage remains on the books and could be legalized if a court challenge to the ban on out of state marriages is successful. That case is underway.

When the relationship between the two women soured Albanese and Lane wanted to be sure the marriage was legally over and went to court in Hartford to have it annulled.

But, Hartford Superior Court Judge Linda Pearce Prestley ruled she does not have the power to annul the marriage because same-sex marriage is not legal in Connecticut to begin with.

Prestley based her ruling on a 2002 case involving two men who attempted to annul their Vermont civil union. The trial court concluded it lacked jurisdiction because the topic of same-sex civil unions was not listed in the statute that defines family court jurisdiction and that the federal Defense of Marriage Act says no state is compelled to legally recognize any other jurisdiction's same-sex marriage.

The ruling and the ongoing case in Massachusetts leaves the couple in legal limbo.

Meanwhile, legislation to create civil unions in Connecticut is working its way through the legislature. It would give same-sex couples many of the same state rights as married heterosexuals, but would not allow them to get a marriage license.