Jason and Jennifer ONeill were married in Bucks County, Penn. in 2005, and for over two years they experienced all of the typical joys and challenges that invariably come during a young couples first years of matrimony.
But then, without warning, trouble unlike anything they could have ever anticipated arrived in their mailbox and threatened to shatter the life they were well on their way to building together.
The Bucks County Register of Wills had sent a letter informing the ONeills that they might not really be married after all.
Say what?
They had put on a wedding. They have the pictures to prove it. They had filed their marriage license with the register of wills. They have a copy of it to prove that.
The problem? A shockingly broad and befuddling declaration by a York County judge stating that marriages are invalid if presided over by a minister who does not regularly serve a church or preach in a physical house of worship. That and a series of decisions by registers of wills across the state of Pennsylvania to issue letters to couples like the ONeills informing them they should consider getting re-married because they might not be legally hitched. (you can see the actual letter the O'Neill's received in the mail on page 17 of this complaint.)
The ONeills 2005 marriage ceremony was officiated by Jasons uncle, a minister of the whose primary vocation is not full-time ministry. Jason and Jennifer grew up in different religious traditions and chose Jasons uncle to perform their wedding because they didnt want to prioritize one of those traditions over the other. As a result, said Barbara G. Reilly, the Bucks County, Penn. register of wills, the couple might want to think about getting married again.
The ONeills .
They dont believe the state has any business invalidating marriages just because it doesnt like the kind of ministers who officiated them. And re-marrying could be construed as a tacit admission that they hadnt ever been married in the first place potentially jeopardizing more then two years worth of benefits they had enjoyed as a married couple, from health insurance to tax benefits.
The 勛圖眻畦 of Pennsylvania has on behalf of the ONeills and two other couples who were married by ministers who were not at the time regularly serving a church or preaching in a physical house of worship. The aim is to get an appellate court ruling that their marriages are in fact valid - a ruling that would invalidate the York County judicial declaration.
But until then, if you live in Pennsylvania, keep a careful eye on your mail. You just never know when the state might try to ruin your marriage.