2006 Ohio 1815 | Ohio Ct. App. | 2006
Lead Opinion
{¶ 2} McIntosh contends in a single assignment of error that the trial court erred in overruling his dismissal motion. We agree. We recently held that R.C.
Fain, J., concurs.
Dissenting Opinion
{¶ 3} I respectfully dissent from the decision of the majority.
{¶ 4} The domestic violence statute, R.C.
{¶ 5} The Defense of Marriage Amendment, Article
{¶ 6} "Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions. This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage."
{¶ 7} Defendant-Appellant and Amicus Citizens For Community Values both argue that the equivalent treatment of spouses, former spouses, and persons living as spouses in R.C.
{¶ 8} The textual canon of interpretation esjudem generis calls for interpreting a general term to reflect the class of objects reflected in more specific terms accompanying it. Applying that rule, the term "legal status" in the second sentence of the Amendment reasonably refers to the existence of a marriage as marriage is defined in the first sentence of the Amendment, that being a union between one man and one woman and only that. The descriptive terms which follow "legal status" merely proscribe conferring marital status in any of those respects on persons living in a different relationship.
{¶ 9} Part of the challenge in interpreting the Amendment is that the prepositional phrase "for relationships of unmarried persons" is misplaced in the order of words in the sentence. It follows the term "legal status," but it functions as an adverbial clause modifying the verbs "create or recognize." In so doing, it merely prohibits treating relationships of unmarried persons as being a marriage. It does not mean that unmarried persons are denied some collateral legal benefit or relieved of a collateral legal detriment which is also incident to a marriage merely because they are unmarried.
{¶ 10} R.C.
{¶ 11} For the foregoing reasons, I agree with the views expressed by Judge Donovan in her dissenting opinion in State v.Ward, Greene App. No. 05-CA-75, 2006-Ohio-___, and find that R.C.