Any NY Dopers That Are Justices of the Peace?

[inkleberry]

Yo.

So I'm knocked up and looking to get married to my partner. Whee!

Because I'm tired, and because we don't want a "real wedding" until after the baby is born, we are looking to have a simple, quick ceremony.

City Hall in NYC is closed on the weekends, and in order to go during the week, we'd have to take a day off from work (a real bitch to do where I work).

I've been trying for days to find a Justice of the Peace or a registered officiant of any sort to do their voodoo and sign our papers. No dice.

So, SDMB is my quasi-last resort.

Are there any dopers here who can *legally* perform marriage in the state of NY, or do you know of anyone who can help us out? We are hoping to do this tomorrow or during the week in the evening sometime.

Thanks in advance. I'm keeping my fingers crossed here...

[Eva Luna]

A dear friend of mine got married by a justice of the peace in NY in January, and he said City Hall basically keeps a list of registered officiants. (His was very cool; I witnessed the signing of the marriage certificate. She looked a lot like Jamie Lee Curtis.)

I can try to get hold of him tomorrow and get more info if nobody else posts by then - their issues were different than yours (nonpracticing Catholic marrying nonpracticing Buddhist), but you're certainly not the only NY-area person in your situation, so there must be a way out of this.

[Billdo]

Well, the New York Domestic Relations Law requires a 24 hour waiting period between the issuance of the license and the wedding, so I think that this weekend is right out.

In New York, you can obtain a marriage license from a Town or City Clerk. The New York City Clerk has offices in all five boroughs, which are open from 8:30 a.m. in which you can both get the license and have the cermony performed.

Best wishes on the wedding.

[inkleberry]

Originally Posted by Billdo

Well, the New York Domestic Relations Law requires a 24 hour waiting period between the issuance of the license and the wedding, so I think that this weekend is right out\
Best wishes on the wedding.

We obtained the license on Thursday afternoon, which means we are well past the 24 hr thing.

Now we just need someone to *sign* the damn thing. We care not who. Going to back to the exceptionally skanky City Hall chapel means taking off a day of work, which is a major hassle for both of us with the jobs we have. Hence, we are looking for someone who can sign papers today or after 5 any day this week.

Thanks for the info though.

[inkleberry]

Originally Posted by Eva Luna

A dear friend of mine got married by a justice of the peace in NY in January, and he said City Hall basically keeps a list of registered officiants. (His was very cool; I witnessed the signing of the marriage certificate. She looked a lot like Jamie Lee Curtis.)

I can try to get hold of him tomorrow and get more info if nobody else posts by then - their issues were different than yours (nonpracticing Catholic marrying nonpracticing Buddhist), but you're certainly not the only NY-area person in your situation, so there must be a way out of this.

That would be really cool, thank you. Part of this also is that I am a conservative Jew and he is Episcopalian (sp?). So finding a minister who will marry us without offending either of us is also a mite tricky. Hence even more cause for a JOP or similar.

We already have the license, it just needs signing.

*sigh*. Why isn't Vegas closer?

[hajario]

I'm an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. Unfortunately, I'm in California. We've had threads about this before and there are dozens of us with this credential. You may even be able to get one of your friends ordained by this afternoon, seriously.

www.ulc.org

Haj

[inkleberry]

Originally Posted by hajario

I'm an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. Unfortunately, I'm in California. We've had threads about this before and there are dozens of us with this credential. You may even be able to get one of your friends ordained by this afternoon, seriously.

www.ulc.org

Haj

Yes, but we need someone already *registered* with City Hall as an officiant. Thanks for the thought though, it was a good idea.

[Eva Luna]

I haven't been able to reach my friend yet; I rarely do on the first try (he travels a lot for work). I'll post back as soon as I do, but in the meantime, try calling City Hall first thing to ask about the list of registered officiants.

BTW, I did a thread to help my friend find an officiant a few months back, and someone posted info that there is some doubt whether Ministers of the Universal Life Church can perform legally binding marriages in NY, so you may want to play it safe.

Good luck!

[Billdo]

After a bit of a search, I found that what I recalled was correct. I was the one who commented on Universal Life Church "ministers" in New York in Eva Luna's earlier thread. As I posted there, ULC "ministers" cannot perform marriages in New York:

Originally Posted by Billdo

In Ranieri v. Ranieri, 146 A.D.2d 34, 539 N.Y.S.2d 382 (1989) the court held that a marriage solemnized by a minister of the Universal Life Church was void under the New York Domestic Relations Law. See also Rubino v. City of New York, 125 Misc. 2d 936, 480 N.Y.S.2d 971 (1984) (rejecting petition of Universal Life Church ministers to require city to register them as eligible to perform marriages).

New York has a number of cases on who qualifies as a clergy member for various purposes (and rather a lot on church schism law, which, oddly enough, I've had to research several times for cases). Clergy qualification comes up depressingly frequently in divorce litigation, where one or the other party may try to claim the marriage invalid because the officiant was not properly qualified, and thus the courts are not entitled to divide the property held in the name of one of the spouses through equitable distribution. However, if the marriage is of any substantial duration, the courts will almost always find a way to rule it valid. I'm very glad I'm not a divorce lawyer.


If I had to synthesize the law on clergy qualification, I would say that a person is clergy if he or she either leads a congregation that meets regularly (whether or not he or she was formally ordained) or was formally ordained as clergy in some recognized denomination. New York's Religious Corporation Law Section 2 reflects this, providing:

The term "clergyman" and the term "minister" include a duly authorized pastor, rector, priest, rabbi, and a person having authority from, or in accordance with, the rules and regulations of the governing ecclesiastical body of the denomination or order, if any, to which the church belongs, or otherwise from the church or synagogue to preside over and direct the spiritual affairs of the church or synagogue.

Courts around the country have frequently considered the status of ULC "churches", usually in the context of tax cases where people have tried to claim the tax benefits of churches and clergy, and have come to varying results. In the tax cases, most ULC "churches" have found to be tax frauds, but a few that hold regular services have been held to be legitimate churches and entitled to tax treatment as such. (I'm pretty sure that the "mother" ULC church in California has been held to be a church under federal tax law.) With regard to the marriage question, some courts have held that they won't look into the religious question of what qualifies someone as clergy in a particular denomination, so if you've got a card from the ULC you can perform marriages (and in some states, no clergy member or other officiant is required). In New York and several other states, however, that becoming clergy requires some training, education or other demonstration of qualification to a congregation that is just not met by obtaining a ministry certificate by mail without doing anything more then sending in the required fee (which these days, is not ever required if you "ordain" online).

By the way, Eva Luna, did your friend ever find an officiant?

[Eva Luna]

Originally Posted by Billdo

By the way, Eva Luna, did your friend ever find an officiant?

Yep - see my first post above. Now if I could either remember her name or get hold of my friend, we'd be in business. Maybe, anyway; I have no idea, of course, what her schedule might be this week.

[inkleberry]

Originally Posted by Eva Luna

Yep - see my first post above. Now if I could either remember her name or get hold of my friend, we'd be in business. Maybe, anyway; I have no idea, of course, what her schedule might be this week.

Thanks Eva. But good news- we *finally* found someone who will marry us next weekend. Yay!

This is the site of the woman who is marrying us. It is $200, which includes the chapel rental, fees, etc. This seemed reasonable to us.

Yay! But thank you so much for your help!