Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Wed, Dead, etc.

Okay, I *REALLY* have to know:

1. What are some situations in which a person (even a famous person) would have to actually show their marriage liscence? (Not counting divorce)

2. If a person is presumed dead but there's no body, how long do people wait before getting rid of the person's stuff, re-renting/selling the person's apartment/house, closing the person's bank account, etc.?

3. I once read that women pregnant with multiples sometimes have to move into the hospital a couple months in advance, but for the life of me I can't remember why.

4. In the event of an emergency blood transfusion, is the procedure

A. Get blood from donor, put blood into plastic baggie-thing, hook baggie-thing up to donee

or

B. Hook donor directly up to donee (I think I saw this on MASH a few times).

5. On the show, did we ever actually see Bernard *smell* anything?

6. How do you spell
A. Sah-Kee (Japanese drink)
B. Cah-strah-tee (Adult male soprano)

7. Do folcs hate it much when related stories are posted out of order? (I have a *very* disorganized muse*).

8. Getting back to number two (did I mention I'm disorganized? ) If said person comes back and turns out not to be dead at all, does he/she automatically get his/her stuff back?

9. Assuming the person left no will, just who took all that stuff, anyway? City officials? Friends? The President?

Any help at all will be very much appreciated.

Well, I can answer a few of them.

In the case of multiple babies, the reason women sometimes have to move into the hospital a few months in advance is so the medical staff can be available quickly to treat complications -- premature labor, bleeding, etc.

Blood transfusions: In modern hospitals, it's usually frozen, bagged blood. The donor to donor thing is normally only done in very rough, emergency conditions where there aren't many facilities for preserving blood. I have never seen it done in a hospital.

Japanese rice wine is spelled Sake, pronounced sah-kee.

According to my dictionary, it's Castrate (n) to describe a person who has been castrated, and can be male or female. A male singer to whom this procedure has been done is a castrato.

I'm afraid you'll have to get the legal questions answered by someone else. <g>

Nan

I'll give a stab at a few:

1. Maybe if the woman kept her maiden name, she might have to show her marriage certificate if something came up with her child who had the husband's last name - to prove marriage? Or how about if the husband/wife was claiming that he/she was not married, so the opposite spouse whipped out the marriage certificate to prove that they did get married.

2. I would think that it would depend on the situation. An old person dying (somewhat expected)- get rid of their stuff right away. Within a few weeks. A sudden tragedy might involve more denial and so the person might hang on to the stuff. Could be forever, box it up and store it.

3. What Nan said. Also, I think with multiples there is more a chance of going into labor prematurely.

4. No clue

5. Hmmm..

6. Going with Nan on this one too

7. As long as I can follow from chapter to chapter on each story, I can manage to juggle two different stories being posted simultaneously. Now, if they are connected and involve the same characters in similar situations, I could see maybe getting a little confused.

8. Not if the stuff was given away to charities, etc. If it was given to relatives and friends, I guess it would depend on the generosity of those people.

9. I don't know the true legal stuff - my brother is an estate attorney so I could get you a really long winded legal answer - but my gut thinking is that if there is no will and no one contests anything, the stuff would just be open to whomever wants it. Anything left might be sold and the proceeds put into the deceased person's estate. If there is no designation of where that money is to be distributed, I'm guessing it just sits or maybe it goes to the government (never to be seen again). Don't quote me on that, though.

Lynn

I could see that situation coming up if one of them was dead, or even gravely ill, and the other was being challenged by other relatives... A marriage certificate would make you the official next-of-kin, and they have some rights.

Or maybe a wife had conflicting documents, like a passport and a driver's license, one with the maiden name, one with the married name -- it's not easy to change the name on your passport.

PJ
who hopes she never has to produce her marriage license considering she hasn't seen it in about eleven years...

Lately, I've had to come up with a marriage license or at least proof of marriage in two cases.

1. I needed to change the ownership on some property my parents owned along with me and since my mother is dead, the lawyer needed to see proof of her marriage to my father. I thought I was proof enough!

2. To make my husband eligible for survivor benefits on my pension, the pension board needed a copy of my marriage certificate. :rolleyes:

Does that help?

gerry

I don't know about in other states, but in CA, a marriage license is permission to get married; the proof of the marriage is a marriage certificate. Possible reasons it might be needed: to change the name on your bank account (or in combination with ID in your other name, to prove you ARE the person with the account), drivers license, passport (this one could easily be years after the marriage).

Additionally, marriages are a matter of PUBLIC record (with very few exceptions). While the process of obtaining a copy of a certified marriage certificate has become more difficult in the past 5 years or so (due to concerns of identity theft), it is still not all that difficult to get one if you know all the pertinent information.

(Pam, if you should ever need yours, getting a copy from the local office of the state's registrar is generally a simple matter of filling out a form and paying a few bucks.)




Having a missing person presumed dead, in the absence of a body, takes on the order of 5-10 years, iirc. I think the law varies from state to state.


Re: out of order stories -- I don't mind particularly. Can't speak for anyone else.

Don't you need to have proof of marriage to buy a house if you're buying one with your spouse? I suppose they only require a copy, though.

In the case of the dead person, it probably depends on how they died. Were they the only one present, or were there other people with them, like a plane crash or earthquake or something where there might have been a small chance, however remote, of survival? I just saw a story today, on Yahoo, where a boy was pulled out of the rubble in Turkey and the parents had already dug the grave. It had been six days. The headline's probably still up.

Also, I don't mind if related stories are posted out of order, so long as they are labeled properly. I'd probably wait until most of it was posted to read it, though.

You don't need a copy of your marriage certificate to buy a house with your spouse; I've bought two with mine and never needed any official identification. You do need to give them your social security number, but I never had to show my actual card that I can recall. We just included the numbers on the paperwork we filled out and they did the verification of income/credit ratings from there. (Though you do need to provide W-2 forms, tax returns, financial info, etc. to buy a house, and those things have your name and SS# on them.)

The only time I recall having to produce my marriage certificate in the nearly 13 years I've been married is when getting a new social security card printed with my new last name. I may have had to do the same thing when I got a new passport after I got married, but again, it was only because of the name change. If a woman keeps her maiden name, though, this wouldn't apply.

Beyond verifying a name change, though, marriages should be a matter of public record so I'm not sure someone would be required to produce their certificate to prove anything well after the fact. The information should be relatively easy to obtain from the courthouse in the city/county where they married, if the information was needed for legal reasons.

Kathy

I've only need to show my marriage certificate twice that I can think of. One is to change my name on my social security card. The other is give a copy to the Army for legal purposes.

I think everyone else has answered the other questions.

Being non-Americans living in the United States, my family and I need to show birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc. every time we renew or change our visa status. That may not apply for your story purposes, but believe me, there's no way that I can lose these vital pieces of paper.

Kathy

Thankyou, everybody!