Domestic partners cannot be considered “spouses” for bankruptcy purposes following the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in California and throughout the country. This was the holding in the recently decided case by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in the matter of In re Villaverde, 2015 Bankr. LEXIS 3561 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2015).
Villaverde involved joint debtors: two women in a same-sex relationship. The couple registered their domestic partnership with the California Secretary of State’s Domestic Partners Registry in June 2004, before California recognized same-sex marriage in 2013. Notwithstanding California’s subsequent recognition of same-sex marriage, the couple never married.
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