Wyoming Court Has Subject-Matter Jurisdiction for Same-Sex Divorce

Paula and Victoria Lee Christiansen were validly married in 2008 in Canada. In 2010, Paula filed for divorce in Wyoming. The district court ruled that, based on the state statute’s definition of marriage as “a civil contract between a male and a female person,” the court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction to to dissolve a same-sex marriage.

 In Christiansen v. Christiansen, 2011 WL 2176486 (Wyo.), 2011 WY 90, the Supreme Court of Wyoming reversed the lower court’s ruling, finding that the district court did have subject-matter jurisdiction to entertain the divorce proceeding. The court ruled that conducting a divorce for a same-sex couple does not require the court to recognize the same-sex marriage as anything more than a condition precedent for the  granting of the divorce:

Respecting the law of Canada…for the limited purpose of accepting the existence of a condition precedent to granting a divorce, is not tantamount to state recognition of an ongoing same-sex marriage. Thus, the policy of this state against the creation of same-sex marriages is not violated.

The court reversed the district court’s ruling and remanded the case for the reinstatement of the divorce proceeding.