{"id":1232,"date":"2015-12-01T13:03:12","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T18:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2017-11-20T20:55:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T01:55:31","slug":"father-of-the-groom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/2015\/12\/01\/father-of-the-groom\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of the Groom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Courtesy of CNN.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Father of the Groom<\/p>\n

By Alison Palmeri, Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Although Nino Esposito and Roland \u201cDrew\u201d Bosee walked into the Allegheny County Courthouse a few weeks ago as legal father and son, they fully expected to be able to walk out as husbands.<\/p>\n

After more than 40 years of being a couple, Esposito, 78, adopted Bosee, 68, in 2012 because they never thought same-sex marriage would be legalized.[i] In order to gain access to reduced inheritance taxes (from 15% to 4%) and other benefits, they needed to legally establish a familial relationship.[ii] \u201cThe adoption \u2018gave [them] the most legitimate thing available to [them]\u2019 at the time.\u201d[iii]<\/p>\n

Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania in 2014 and the subsequent 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges<\/em>, however, Esposito and Bosee finally had the chance of obtaining the marital union they had longed for. But first, the adoption had to be annulled.<\/p>\n

Both Esposito and Bosee anticipated that the annulment of their adoption would be a simple process and were shocked when their petition was denied by Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O\u2019Toole. O\u2019Toole\u2019s primary reason for the denial was that the original adoption was not fraudulent.[iv]<\/p>\n

While O\u2019Toole denied the annulment, other Pennsylvania courts have granted annulments in the same situation. Most recently, Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur, who had legally formed a domestic partnership under New York law in 1994. When the couple moved to Pennsylvania in 2000, Novak had to adopt MacArthur in order for their benefits to carry over.[v] The successful annulment of their adoption in May 2015 was \u201cthe first of an adoption-turned-marriage in the state\u201d and they had hoped it would \u201c\u2018[remove] the hurdle for other people in the same position.\u2019\u201d[vi]<\/p>\n

Because this concept is relatively new to Pennsylvania, there is some confusion on how courts should handle the annulment petitions. O\u2019Toole stated that \u201che was \u2018sensitive to the situation Mr. Esposito and Mr. Bosee found themselves [in],\u2019 and added that he \u2018welcomes direction from our appellate courts.\u2019\u201d[vii]<\/p>\n

Although O\u2019Toole cited needing evidence of fraud to annul the adoption, the Pennsylvania Code is vaguer. Section 2739(b) states that \u201cbefore the court may enter an order discontinuing an [adoption] agreement, it must find by clear and convincing evidence that discontinuance serves the needs, welfare, and best interest of the child.\u201d[viii]<\/p>\n

Arguably, it would be in the best interest of the legal \u201cchild,\u201d Bosee, to annul the adoption and allow him to marry his partner in life of the past 40 plus years.<\/p>\n

Esposito and Bosee have appealed the decision and oral arguments are expected to begin in December 2015.[ix]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[i] Perez, Evan and Ariane de Vogue, \u201cCouple Seeks Right to Marry. The Hitch? They\u2019re Legally Father and Son\u201d CNN<\/em>, accessed Nov. 6, 2015 <http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/11\/03\/politics\/same-sex-marriage-adoption-father-son-pennsylvania\/#>.<\/p>\n

[ii] Schapiro, Rich, \u201cGay Pennsylvania Couple Seeks to Annul Adoption That Fetched Them Inheritance Rights Now That Same-Sex Marriage is Legal\u201d New York Daily News<\/em>, accessed Nov. 14, 2015 <http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/national\/gay-pa-couple-annul-adoption-wed-article-1.2422060>.<\/p>\n

[iii] Perez.<\/p>\n

[iv] Id.<\/em><\/p>\n

[v] Dier, Arden, \u201c’Father’ Marries ‘Son’ After They Dissolve Adoption\u201d USA Today<\/em>, accessed Nov 15, 2015 <http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2015\/05\/28\/newser\/28064115\/>.<\/p>\n

[vi] Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[vii] Schapiro.<\/p>\n

[viii] Pa. Stat. and Consol. Stat. Ann. \u00a7 2739 (West).<\/p>\n

[ix] Schapiro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father of the Groom By Alison Palmeri, Staff Writer Although Nino Esposito and Roland \u201cDrew\u201d Bosee walked into the Allegheny County Courthouse a few weeks ago as legal father and son, they fully expected to be able to walk out as husbands. After more than 40 years of being a [\u2026] <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[238,240,237,236,239,30,235],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-juris-blog","category-posts","tag-adoption","tag-annulment","tag-benefits","tag-inheritance-tax","tag-obergefell-v-hodges","tag-pennsylvania","tag-same-sex-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1244,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/1244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}