Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020

Dugan, J. v. Greco, J.

Dugan, J. v. Greco, J.
Superior Court of Pennsylvania · Decided March 9, 2020

Dugan, J. v. Greco, J.

Opinion

J-A04041-20 NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION – SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P 65.37 JOHN DUGAN : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA Appellant : v. : : : JOSEPH A. GRECO : : : No. 1924 EDA 2019 Appeal from the Order Entered June 6, 2019 In the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County Civil Division at No(s): 2019-00302-DI BEFORE: PANELLA, P.J., STRASSBURGER, J.* and COLINS, J.* CONCURRING MEMORANDUM BY STRASSBURGER, J.:FILED MARCH 09, 2020 I join the Majority Memorandum. I write separately to emphasize that this decision is not a holding that there could not be a same-sex common law marriage prior to the abolition of common law marriage prospectively in 2005. In re Estate of Carter, 159 A.3d 970 (Pa. Super. 2017) holds definitively to the contrary – there can indeed be a same-sex common law marriage.

This case merely holds that Appellant, Dugan, has not met his heavy burden of proving a common law marriage. Staudenmayer v. Staudenmayer, 714 A.2d 1016 (Pa. 1998).

Judge Colins joins this concurring memorandum.

*Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.