An Arizona family law case arose awhile back where two first cousins were married in Virginia but moved to Arizona sometime before ARS § 25-112 was amended in 1996. While legal at the time of marriage in Virginia when it occurred, a dispute arose as to whether the marriage should be considered valid under Arizona law. Current Arizona law would not consider the the marriage valid but the legal question involved timing.

Arizona law is applied when determining validity of a marriage from a state outside Arizona. Since Arizona only enacted its amendments to ARS § 25-112 in1996, marriages contracted in another state prior to enactment of that statute's amendments are not subject to the amendments. In other words, as long as a marriage is valid under the version of the statute prior to the 1996 amendments, Arizona cannot dispute the validity of a marriage even if the issue only comes up after the 1996 amendments. This ruling is from the Arizona domestic relations appellate case Cook v. Cook, 1 CA-CV 03-0727, January 13, 2005.

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Trent Wilcox
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