BILL ANALYSIS
AB 25
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 25 (Migden)
As Amended September 7, 2001
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |42-31|(June 6, 2001) |SENATE: |23-11|(September 10, |
| | | | | |2001) |
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Original Committee Reference: JUD .
SUMMARY : Expands the group of individuals who may register as
domestic partners, and confers various new legal rights on all
registered domestic partners. (All further references to
domestic partners refer to registered domestic partners.)
Specifically, this bill :
1)Expands the group of individuals who may register as domestic
partners to include opposite sex couples where one of the
persons is over the age of 62. Current law allows opposite
sex couples to register as domestic partners only where both
partners are over the age of 62.
2)Confers various new rights, privileges, and standing on all
registered domestic partners, consistent with the rights,
privileges and standing of spouses, including:
a) The right to recover damages for negligent
infliction of emotional distress;
b) The right to assert a cause of action for wrongful
death;
c) The right of a domestic partner to adopt a child of
his or her partner as a stepparent;
d) The right to receive continued health care coverage
(including the right of his or her child to receive
coverage) because he or she is a surviving beneficiary of
the deceased employee or annuitant;
e) The right to make health care decisions for an
incapacitated partner;
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f) The right to nominate a conservator, be nominated as
conservator, oppose, participate, file various petitions
in the conservatorship, and to receive all notices
relevant to conservatorship proceedings, including
temporary conservatorships, involving his or her domestic
partner;
g) The right to receive an allowance from the estate of
a conservatee who is his or her domestic partner, to pay
for basic living expenses during the conservatorship, in
the same manner as a spouse and the minor children of a
conservatee are entitled;
h) The right to jointly purchase real property with a
conservatee who is his or her partner and to receive
gifts from the conservator upon court approval;
i) The right and priority of his or her nominee to be
appointed conservator equal to the right and priority of
a nominee of a spouse;
j) The right to be treated the same as a spouse in a
statutory will;
aa) The right to inherit property from a deceased partner
in the same manner as a spouse inheriting under the
intestate succession laws of the state;
bb) The right to be appointed as administrator of
decedent's estate, in the same manner and priority as a
spouse;
cc) If he or she predeceased the decedent, the right of
his or her children, parents, brothers and sisters to be
appointed as administrator of decedent's estate, in the
same manner and priority as the children, parents,
brothers and sisters of a predeceased spouse;
dd) The right to be treated as the spouse of a taxpayer
for purposes of determining personal state income tax
liability;
ee) The right to use employee sick leave to attend to an
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illness of his or her partner or his or her partner's
child and the right not to be discriminated against for
the use of sick leave to attend to an illness of his or
her partner or partner's child;
ff) The right to unemployment insurance benefits for
leaving employment to join his or her domestic partner at
a remote location to which commuting to work is
impractical and a transfer of employment is not
available;
gg) The right to file a claim for disability benefits for
his or her partner, in the same manner as a spouse may
file such a claim; and,
hh) Allow death benefits and survivor allowances to be
given to a surviving domestic partner in San Mateo
County.
The Senate amendments :
1)Clarify that if a domestic partnership is terminated by the
death of one of the parties and a Notice of Termination was
not filed prior to the death of the decedent, the surviving
domestic partner shall be deemed to be the surviving spouse
for purposes of this bill.
2)Make changes to the statutory will form to indicate the
effects of termination of a domestic partnership.
3)Provide that, unless the will expressly provides otherwise,
termination of a domestic partnership, after the execution of
the will, revokes: a) a bequest of property made in a will to
a former domestic partner; b) a general or special power of
appointment conferred on the former domestic partner; and, c)
a nomination of the former domestic partner to be an executor,
trustee, conservator, or guardian.
4)Provide that in San Mateo County, subject to approval by the
Board of Supervisors, death benefits and survivor's allowances
may be payable to a member's surviving domestic partner.
5)Make various technical changes.
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AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the current version of the bill, but did not contain the
Senate provisions noted above.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
analysis:
1)The Franchise Tax Board estimates annual General Fund revenue
losses of about $1 million related to the tax provisions of
this bill.
2)Potential annual costs of about $100,000 to the Unemployment
Insurance Fund for payment of unemployment benefits to
eligible domestic partners.
3)Any increased costs to the Secretary of State to register
additional domestic partnerships would be minor and would be
covered by registration fees.
4)Potential additional state costs to continue health benefits
for those surviving domestic partners who also receive a
retirement allowance and for their children.
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to expand the group of individuals
who can register as, and confer a number of new legal rights on,
domestic partners, to the same extent such rights are guaranteed
to married couples. In commenting on the need for this measure,
the author states:
[U]ntil the enactment of AB 26 in 1999, same sex couples
and their families received no recognition under
California law. Even with the enactment of the domestic
partner registry with hospital visitation rights and
health benefits for public employees, few substantive
benefits are available to domestic partners who register.
[This bill] would extend to domestic partners substantive
legal and economic benefits that married spouses enjoy.
In 1999, the Legislature enacted and Governor Davis signed into
law AB 26 (Migden), Chapter 588, Statutes of 1999, California's
first domestic partnership statute. AB 26 defines domestic
partners as "two adults who have chosen to share one another's
lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual
caring" and who file a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with
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the Secretary of State. (Family Code section 297.) Persons who
may register as domestic partners are same sex couples over the
age of 18, or opposite sex couples over the age of 62, who are
not blood relatives, not married to others, not members of
another domestic partnership, and who share a common residence,
and agree to be jointly responsible for each other's basic
living expenses incurred during the partnership. AB 26 narrowly
defines the legal effect of creating a domestic partnership and
expressly provides that registration of the domestic partnership
does not establish any rights except those provided in
legislation. (Family Code section 299.5.)
The California Alliance for Pride and Equality (CAPE), the
bill's sponsor, states that the bill will provide to registered
domestic partners several basic rights that currently only
married couples have under California law. In opposition, the
Traditional Values Coalition argues that the bill is an attempt
to circumvent the will of the majority of Californians who voted
for Proposition 22 which, they claim, "declared that the rights
and privileges of marriage should not be extended to other forms
of so-called 'unions.'"
Analysis Prepared by : Saskia Kim / JUD. / (916) 319-2334FN:
0003374