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        riddles >> easy >> The merry widow's sister
        
(Message started by: SeXXXyLeo on Jul 5^th, 2005, 4:19pm)

Title: The merry widow's sister
Post by SeXXXyLeo on Jul 5^th, 2005, 4:19pm

Can a man legally marry his widow's sister in the state of California?
:D

Title: Re: Can someone tell me the answer to this
Post by Noke Lieu on Jul 5^th, 2005, 4:57pm

Oh yeah, before anyone else mentions it, could you please USE PROPER TITLES (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_medium;action=display;num=1038015573), and this probably needs to sit in easy, one of the moderators will probably shift it in due course, rather that delete it.

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If Ian marries Jan and Ian dies, Jan is Ian's widow. Makes him doing anything legally pretty tough. Except for loitering, I suppose.
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But I guess Ian could have been mistakenly pronounced dead (say he'd been mulitated is a horrific pirate attack, and delivered to a monastary on a South Sea Island with severe amnesia. It took him 5 years to leave the island, but now a man of the cloth...)

Meantime Jan, now officially a widow, seeks solace in Brad's hunky arms. 4 and a half years (and two kids) later, Jan and Brad are to be married...

{edit} whoops- got a bit lost trying to be a smart arse. So Jan gets married. Her sister, so moved by the ceremony, proposes to her new brother in-law. So Brother Ian marries Martha and Stuart. {/edit}

Title: Re: Can someone tell me the answer to this
Post by Icarus on Jul 5^th, 2005, 5:10pm

Neither California, nor any other state or nation has a law specifically preventing a man from marrying his widow's sister. However, there are generally laws against her marrying him.

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by WombatDeath on Jul 6^th, 2005, 3:26pm

I believe that this is a question about human rights: if a man owns a widow, can he legally marry her sister?

On the face of it he can, but as slavery is illegal in California I contend that the problem domain is invalid.

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by rmsgrey on Jul 7^th, 2005, 4:40am

Don't you have to be a legal person to marry? The issuing of a death certificate usually revokes your personhood... (it's possible California has unusual local laws)

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by Icarus on Jul 7^th, 2005, 4:45pm

I'm quite sure that California does not have laws specifically preventing "non-persons" from marrying. It really not something a law is needed to address, now is it?

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by Grimbal on Jul 8^th, 2005, 1:35am

But maybe there is no law allowing it?

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by Icarus on Jul 8^th, 2005, 3:35pm

That there most certainly is! In the U.S. anything not prohibited by law is legal. We have laws to tell us what we cannot do, and what we have to do. But we do NOT require laws to tell us what we are allowed to do.

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by rmsgrey on Jul 8^th, 2005, 6:14pm

on 07/08/05 at 15:35:27, Icarus wrote:

So there's no law defining marriage?

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by TenaliRaman on Jul 9^th, 2005, 6:49am

I M BACK!
I NUH ANNOUNS DAT DEAD MAN CAN LEGAHLY MAHRY HIS WIDOH'S SISTAH!

-- AI

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Jul 9^th, 2005, 9:10am

on 07/09/05 at 06:49:43, TenaliRaman wrote:

I NUH ANNOUNS DAT DEAD MAN CAN LEGAHLY MAHRY HIS WIDOH'S SISTAH!

Of course he can! He just marries her first. ;)

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by Grimbal on Jul 10^th, 2005, 2:50pm

on 07/08/05 at 15:35:27, Icarus wrote:

What I mean is: getting married involves an action from the state, namely to register the wedding. If they don't do it, you are not married. I would assume that the law tells what wedding is and how you can get married, and that everything that doesn't fall in this definition is not marriage. If you come to the city hall for marrying your hamster to your dog, they will tell you they cannot do that, not because it is specifically forbidden, but because the law doesn't tell how to do it.

But then, I an not a lawyer.

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by rmsgrey on Jul 11^th, 2005, 7:05am

At least in UK, marriage requires the signing and witnessing of a contract between the two parties (the ceremony is optional)

Not many dead people are able to sign...

Title: Re: The merry widow's sister
Post by towr on Jul 11^th, 2005, 7:52am

on 07/11/05 at 07:05:24, rmsgrey wrote:

At least in UK, marriage requires the signing and witnessing of a contract between the two parties (the ceremony is optional)

Not many dead people are able to sign...

You don't necessarily have to be able to sign yourself. Some people are handicapped and simply, physically, can't sign; they can still marry.
You could give someone else the authorisation to sign documents for you. So in that case, unless there are extra rules or regulations preventing it, they could sign your marriagecontract in your name, even when your dead.