[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 20, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 11462]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-6674]
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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Rescission of Social Security Ruling SSR 82-43 Relationship--
Presumption of the Validity of the Last Marriage
AGENCY: Social Security Administration.
ACTION: Notice of rescission of Social Security Ruling SSR 82-43.
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SUMMARY: The Commissioner of Social Security gives notice of the
rescission of SSR 82-43.
EFFECTIVE DATE: March 20, 1996.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joanne K. Castello, Division of
Regulations and Rulings, Social Security Administration, 6401 Security
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235, (410) 965-1711.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Social Security Rulings make available to
the public precedent final decisions, opinions, and orders relating to
the Federal old-age, survivors, disability, supplemental security
income, and black lung benefits programs. Social Security Rulings may
be based on claim decisions made at all administrative levels of
adjudication, Federal court decisions, Commissioner's decisions,
opinions of the Office of the General Counsel, and other policy
interpretations of the law and regulations.
SSR 82-43, issued in 1982, was published in the 1981-1985
Cumulative Edition of the Rulings on page 92. SSR 82-43 involves Kansas
law on the presumption of the validity of the last marriage and
rebutting the presumption. The Ruling holds that whether the
presumption is rebutted depends on knowledge of divorce records about
the worker from all places where he lived for the entire period of
separation from the spouse who is challenging the last marriage and the
existence of a divorce.
The Supreme Court of Kansas in Harper v. DuPree, 345 P.2d 644 (Kan.
1959), established a very high burden of proof on the party who attacks
a marriage as invalid on the grounds that one of the spouses was not
previously divorced. In Harper, the burden of proof is one of leaving
``no room for reasonable doubt.'' In Elms v. Bowen, 702 F. Supp. 273
(D. Kan. 1989), the district court, relying on Harper, concluded that
the absence of divorce records concerning a prior marriage was not
sufficient to prove the invalidity of a subsequent marriage.
The presumption under Kansas law is so strict that it precludes a
blanket rebuttal policy that the absence of a divorce decree among the
public records of places the insured lived constitutes sufficient
evidence that no divorce occurred. Therefore, each claim involving the
rebuttal of the presumption of the last marriage under Kansas law must
be evaluated and decided individually. SSR 82-43 is rescinded because
it does not reflect Kansas law at this time and a general policy
statement on rebutting the presumption of the validity of the last
marriage where the claim is governed by Kansas law is not possible, at
least until Kansas law is clarified.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, Programs 96.001 Social
Security--Disability Insurance; 96.002 Social Security--Retirement
Insurance; 96.004 Social Security--Survivors Insurance; 96.005
Special Benefits for Disabled Coal Miners.)
Dated: March 8, 1996.
Shirley S. Chater,
Commissioner of Social Security.
[FR Doc. 96-6674 Filed 3-19-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4190-29-P
