Request By:
Mr. Ray L. Slone
Boyd County Clerk
Catlettsburg, Kentucky 41129
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your office has inadvertently issued a marriage license to first cousins. This occurred simply because the applicants did not inform your office of such kinship until after the marriage ceremony was performed. The applicants claimed they did not know such marriage was illegal.
The couple desires to know if the marriage is void. The answer is that a marriage between first cousins is incestuous and void pursuant to KRS 402.010(2). Indeed, it is void ab initio [from the beginning]. See Ex parte Bowen, Ky., 247 S.W.2d 379 (1952). In the eyes of the law, as interpreted by our appellate court, it is just as if there was no license and no ceremony. They are, unfortunately, just a man and a woman living together.
Now that the marriage license has been returned by the minister performing the marriage ceremony and your marriage records are complete on this case [according to information given by one of your deputies], the remaining question is what can the clerk do about this completed marriage record. See KRS 402.100, 402.220, and 420.230.
It must be noted at this point that the issuance of the marriage license and the compiling of the marriage records, including the marriage license and certificate, as required by statute, were all done in good faith by the county clerk.
The answer to your second question is that the county clerk has no statutory authority to alter in any respect this marriage record, even though the marriage is void ab initio.
If the applicants desire to have the marriage license and record cancelled and expunged from the county clerk's records, they should consult with a private attorney, looking toward a suit in circuit court seeking such relief. See Dean v. Gregory, Ky., 318 S.W.2d 549 (1958).