A century-old New York law that validated a marriage if it was consecrated with a religious ceremony regardless of whether the couple obtained a license is outdated, a Manhattan judge ruled in dismissing a divorce proceeding.

I was initially attracted to this headline by the haunting (or hilarious) phrase “Marriage of Mishap,” but then read on to learn that if you get married in a religious ceremony, a/k/a a church of some kind or other, without getting a license from a/k/a the state…you can’t get a divorce! Because, according to New York State, i.e., laws and courts and entities like that, you are not married.

What a break! Someone in this case won’t have to pay alimony. (I wonder how they’ll divide the CD collection.)