Source: Providence Journal and Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Less than a week after the Rhode Island Supreme Court said a same-sex couple could not get divorced in Family Court, one of the Providence women involved in the groundbreaking case filed for divorce yesterday in Superior Court, the main state trial court.

The new filing is a tactical move intended to skirt a major roadblock caused by a recent state Supreme Court ruling.

Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston married in Fall River in May 2004 shortly after Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. And last year, the couple filed for divorce in Rhode Island Family Court.

But in a 3-to-2 decision issued last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that Family Court lacked jurisdiction to grant the divorce because under the 1961 law that created Family Court, the word “marriage” means the union of a man and a woman.

Chambers’ lawyer, Louis M. Pulner, filed a complaint for divorce in Superior Court shortly after noon yesterday.

“The Supreme Court is telling us Family Court lacks jurisdiction, but they did not say Superior Court lacks jurisdiction,” Pulner said in an interview. “They did not say this couple could not get divorced in Rhode Island. They just said they could not get divorced in Family Court because of their interpretation of statutory language from 1961.”

Superior Court has “extraordinary equitable jurisdiction” that is broader than Family Court’s jurisdiction, and Superior Court handled divorces before Family Court was created in 1961, Pulner said.

Unless the case proceeds there, at least one of the women could be forced to move to Massachusetts and seek a divorce from Bay State courts.

Massachusetts restricts gay marriages to residents of states where the marriage would be recognized. A Massachusetts judge decided last year that no law specifically bans same-sex marriages in Rhode Island, though the state has taken no action to recognize them.

Neither Chambers or Ormiston want to relocate to get the divorce.

"I cannot fathom that there is not a forum in the state of Rhode Island for a legally married couple to dissolve their marriage," Pulner said.

Ormiston's lawyer, Nancy Palmisciano, said she did not object to Pulner's filing.

"The point of this whole thing is to get these ladies divorced," she said.

Full articles: Gay divorce case moves to RI Superior Court | Boston Globe
Despite ruling, woman asks court for same-sex divorce | Providence Journal