Candelaria v. Kelly

Summary

The Nevada Supreme Court held that Obergefell v. Hodges applies retroactively to require Nevada courts to recognize a same-sex marriage licensed and performed in California in 2008, despite Nevada's prior prohibition on recognizing such marriages. The court declined to backdate the marriage to 1991 or 1992 for property-division purposes because Nevada does not recognize common-law marriage and Obergefell does not require judicially creating a marriage before solemnization. The court affirmed the divorce decree characterizing the disputed premarital assets as the respondent's separate property.

Holdings

1. Obergefell v. Hodges applies retroactively to require Nevada courts to recognize a same-sex marriage lawfully licensed and performed in another state before Nevada recognized same-sex marriages. Accordingly, Nevada must recognize the parties' 2008 California marriage.
2. Obergefell does not require Nevada courts to backdate a same-sex marriage to a date before the parties solemnized their union.
3. The court declined to adopt a factor-based but-for test that would backdate the parties' marriage, because doing so would effectively create a judicial exception to Nevada's statutory ban on common-law marriage and the appellant had not shown equitable authority to deviate from the statute absent a constitutional challenge.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Obergefell v. Hodges requires Nevada to recognize retroactively a same-sex marriage lawfully performed in another state before Nevada recognized such marriages.
2. Whether Obergefell requires Nevada courts to backdate a same-sex marriage to a date before the parties solemnized their union.
3. Whether the Supreme Court of Nevada should adopt a but-for, factor-based equitable test to backdate a marriage despite Nevada's statutory ban on common-law marriage.

Disposition

affirmed