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  • From: Scott <catfather AT donpoo.net>
  • To: Internetworkers <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] random NC statutes
  • Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:18:19 -0400

On Friday, July 11, 2003, at 02:28 PM, Thomas Beckett wrote:
Scott wrote:
If a man and a woman who aren't married go to a hotel/motel and register themselves as married then, according to state law, they are legally married.

That is not the law in North Carolina. You can only get married in this state with a valid marriage license issued by your county Register of Deeds. (It is a property transaction, after all.)


Hmm, I used to hear about a law stating that basically the state would recognize a couple as a married after living in the same house sharing expenses and what not for a period of seven years. (Common law marriage?) Was this also a casualty of mangled law interpretation or was it something that existed and has since been done away with?

Can anyone find a cite on this? I did some quick googling but failed to turn anything up other than what appear to be copy-n-paste references to dumblaws.com.

You can look at NC Statutes here:

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Statutes/StatutesTOC.pl

Chapter 14 is the criminal code, which contains most of those crackpot legislation. Article 26 - Offenses against Public Morality and Decency - is especially juicy.

http://www.ncleg.net/Statutes/GeneralStatutes/HTML/ByArticle/ Chapter_14/Article_26.html


[snip]

Getting back to the hotel room thing, this is what the statute actually says:

"Any man and woman found occupying the same bedroom in any
hotel, public inn or boardinghouse for any immoral purpose, or
any man and woman falsely registering as, or otherwise
representing themselves to be, husband and wife in any hotel,
public inn or boardinghouse, shall be deemed guilty of a Class 2
misdemeanor."

http://www.ncleg.net/Statutes/GeneralStatutes/HTML/BySection/ Chapter_14/GS_14-186.html

One wonders if the same Supreme Court ruling would also invalidate this statute?

I more wonder how this clearly defined statement was twisted to into what was found on dumblaws.com. I had suspected that this wasn't accurately reported all though I do agree that the variation posted to dumblaws.com makes for more lively Internet lore.

--
Scott (aim: bluecame1)
blog: http://sackheads.org/~scottrus/blog/
Do not trifle with me, I have eaten 104 brains.





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