[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]
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