Also known as: domestic partner · domestic partnership · DP
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A person with whom a judge maintains a committed personal relationship equivalent to marriage. The relationship triggers mandatory disqualification when the domestic partner holds an economic interest in a party or the subject matter of a proceeding.
A person with whom a judge maintains a committed personal relationship equivalent to marriage. The relationship triggers mandatory disqualification when the domestic partner holds an economic interest in a party or the subject matter of a proceeding.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Unmarried individuals living together in a long-term committed relationship. Such partners receive recognition for purposes including class-gift construction, parentage determinations, and certain spousal-equivalent rights under applicable statutes or case law.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Unmarried individuals living together in a long-term committed relationship. Such partners receive recognition for purposes including class-gift construction, parentage determinations, and certain spousal-equivalent rights under applicable statutes or case law.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Judge Rivera presides over a wrongful-termination suit against OrbitalSat. Her domestic partner Maya works at OrbitalSat and holds stock options whose value depends on the company's profitability. Because Maya's financial stake could be affected by the outcome, Judge Rivera must recuse herself from the case.
Yes. Model Rule 2.11 treats a domestic partner identically to a spouse for purposes of economic-interest disqualification. When the partner holds stock options or other financial interests in a party, the judge must recuse even without a motion from the parties.
Supporting sources
Darius Dixon and Devon Drake, domestic partners, have a genetic child together. Darius's will creates a class gift to his children. Under the applicable rule, the child qualifies as Darius's child for the class gift even though the parents never married.
Elisa and Emily lived as domestic partners and planned to raise twins together. After separation, Emily sought child support from Elisa. The court treated the former domestic partnership as establishing parental obligations equivalent to those of a biological parent.
After the genetic mother's domestic partner adopts the child, the child remains a child of both genetic parents for class-gift purposes under the Restatement. The surviving genetic parent may still create a class gift that includes the child.
Under Restatement (Third) of Property § 14.7, a nonmarital child is treated as the child of the genetic parent for class gifts created by that parent. Domestic-partner status of the parents does not alter this treatment unless the transferor expresses a contrary intent.
Supporting sources
Yes. Courts have imposed support obligations on a former domestic partner who consented to and participated in the conception and raising of children, treating the relationship as creating parental responsibilities comparable to those of a biological parent.
Supporting sources
…perceive no reason why both parents of a child cannot be women. That result now is possible under the current version of the domestic partnership statutes, which took effect this year. (§ 297 et seq.) Two women “who have chosen to share one another’s lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring” and have a common…