Guam senators are considering a bill that would grant legal recognition to common-law marriage on the island.
While introducing Bill 221-38, Sen. Shelly Calvo said many couples on Guam share a home, finances, raise children and build lives together without completing a formal civil or religious marriage ceremony.
But the relationships affect more than the two people involved, extending to children and other relatives, she said.
When the relationship ends, whether through separation, serious illness or death, the lack of legal recognition can affect custody, inheritance, property, medical decision-making and benefits.
Under the bill, courts could recognize a relationship as a common-law marriage if both partners are 18 and over, legally able to get married, not in a marriage or civil union with anyone else, cohabitate as spouses for at least two years and represent themselves as being married by doing things such as sharing finances, using the same last name, filing taxes together or referring to themselves as spouses.
Sen. Therese Terlaje said she was concerned because the bill allows the relationship to be recognized up to three years after it has ended. If one person dies, the survivor would be able to claim the couple was in a common-law marriage, even though the bill says both parties have to mutually and voluntarily agree to be married.
If the couple breaks up, one partner “can come in after three years later and say, ‘Oh, but we were married, and now I'm entitled to your inheritance, your property, spousal support, custody, medical decision making, employment and insurance benefits, even though we didn't do what was necessary to ensure that while we were together,'” she said.
The situation could be further complicated if one of the partners gets married or enters into a civil union within the three-year period.
Although nobody testified at the hearing, Attorney General Douglas Moylan signed in and indicated he opposed the bill.
Sen. Chris Barnett said he incorrectly thought common-law marriage was already recognized in Guam law.
“I think that's the kind of the misconception that a lot of people have, is there's this myth that if you've been together for seven years, then somehow you enter into a common law marriage and you're protected, which, you know, as some of us are learning here today, that's absolutely not the case,” he said.
However, he did not support the bill, describing it as “a little sketchy, and some of the scenarios that it makes possible, especially after the death of a partner.”
