OFFIce OF THE ATTORNEV GENEML SThTE OF TEX.u 

JOHN CORNYN 

December 16, 1999 

The Honorable Susan D. Reed 

Bexar County Criminal District Attorney 

300 Dolorosa, Fifth Floor 

San Antonio, Texas 78205-3030 

Opinion No. JC-0156 

Re: Whether a county clerk must accept for filing a 

“declaration ofdomestic partnership” (RQ-0084-JC) 

Dear Ms. Reed: 

You have asked this office whether the County Clerk of Bexar County, Texas is required to 

accept for tiling a document styled a “declaration of domestic partnership,” in which two unmarried 

persons who reside together declare under oath “that the two individuals share in each other’s lives 

in a committed relationship and that they agree to be jointly responsible for each other’s financial 

responsibilities.” Letter from Honorable Susan D. Reed, Criminal District Attorney, Bexar County, 

to Honorable John Comyn, Attorney General, at 1 (July 9,1999) [hereinafter “Request Letter”]. We 

conclude that such a document, like the purported judgments of the “common law courts” of the 

“Republic ofTexas” that this office dealt with in Attorney General Opinion DM-389 (1996) and the 

various unusual instruments we considered in Letter Opinion 98-016, is a stranger to the laws of 

Texas. Accordingly, section 192.001 of the Local Government Code does not require the County 

Clerk of Bexar County to record this document. 

Section 192.001 of the Local Government Code provides that the county clerk “shall record 

each deed, mortgage, or other instrument that is required or permitted by law to be recorded.” TEX. 

Lot. GOV'T CODE ANN. 5 192.001 (Vernon 1999). In recent years, this office has considered the 

applicability of this statute to a variety of what may be termed “home-made” documents by which 

citizens have attempted to alter or abolish their legal and political relations with the State of Texas 

and the United States, or to impose purported legal obligations upon third parties. Thus, in Attorney 

General Opinion DM-389 we advised that county clerks were not required to file purported 

judgments of “common law courts” organized by persons who alleged themselves to be the 

Republic of Texas, which courts we described as “bodies which have no legal existence except in 

the minds of the partisans of this movement.” Tex. Att’y Gen. Gp. No. DM-389 (1996) at 2. Noting 

the language of section 192.001 cited above, the opinion rules, “An instrument originating from a 

‘common law’ court is not one ‘that is required or permitted by law to be recorded.“’ Id. 

Similarly, in Letter Opinion 98-016, we applied the same reasoning to a number of other 

unusual documents, some of which were and some of which were not in affidavit form, 

including inter da: “Refusal to Pay Property Taxes. . Affidavit Revoking Signature. Affidavit 

of Refusal to Accept Post . Surrender of Social Security Card Declaration of Person Being 
The Honorable Susan D. Reed - Page 2 (X-0156) 

a Sovereign [and] Notice of Asseveration . .” Tex. Att’y Gen. LO-98-016, at 1-2. Relying 

upon City of Abilene v. Fvur, 143 S.W.2d 654 (Tex. Civ. App.-Eastland 1940, no writ), Letter 

Opinion 98-016 held that “the clerk may file and record a document only if authorized, required, or 

permitted to do so by a statute.” Tex. Att’y Gen. LO-98-016, at 3. 

In our view, the teaching of Attorney General Opinion DM-389 and Letter Opinion 98-016 

is clear. Instruments by which individuals, without legal warrant, seek to alter their political or 

juridical relations with others, or to impose legal burdens upon third parties, are not, in the words 

of section 192.001, such as are “required or permitted by law to be recorded,” and consequently the 

clerk has no duty to record them. 

The affidavits at issue here appear designed to create or proclaim a legal relation akin to 

marriage. Noteworthy in this regard is the agreement “to be jointly responsible for each other’s 

financial responsibilities.” Request Letter, supra, at 1. This is essentially the same commitment as 

the mutual duty of spousal support mandated by section 2.501 of the Family Code. Such affidavits 

do not, however, create a marital relation under Texas law. 

Texas recognizes two forms of marriage, ceremonial and informal. See TEX. FAM. CODE 

ANN. ch. 2 (Vernon 1998). Ceremonial marriages require amarriage license. Id. 5 2.001. Informal 

marriages may be proved either by a declaration registered with the county clerk, id. $5 2.401, ,402, 

,404, or by evidence that “the man and woman agreed to be married and after the agreement they 

lived together in this state as husband and wife and there represented to others that they were 

married.” Id. 5 2.401(a)(2) (emphasis added). 

Generally, such affidavits as these are apparently made in an attempt to secure some legal 

recognition for unions ofpersons of the same sex. See Mary Flood, Unmarried Couples Await State 

Ruling, WALL ST. J., Aug. 18,1999, at Tl. However, the laws ofTexas do not recognize marriages 

between persons of the same sex, whether ceremonial or informal. &&I’Ex. FAM. CODE ANN. 

$5 2.001(b) (Vernon 1998) (marriage licensemaynotbe issued for same-sexmarriage); 2.401(a)(2) 

(informal marriage requires agreement of “man and woman”); Murphy Y. State, 653 S.W.2d 567, 

569 (Tex. App.-San Antonio 1983, writ ref d); accord Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. Nos. M-1277 (1972); 

M-1216 (1972). Neither the county clerk, by registration of such instruments as those in question 

here, nor private persons by the creation of them, may alter the laws of Texas. 

Because such an affidavit as you describe is not, therefore, one “required or permitted by law 

to be recorded,” TEX. Lot. GOV’T CODE ANN. 5 192.001 (Vernon 1999), the County Clerk of Bexar 

County is not required to accept it for recording. 
The Honorable Susan D. Reed - Page 3 (JC-0156) 

SUMMARY 

“Declarations of domestic partnership” are not “documents 

required or permitted by law to be recorded.” TEX. Lot. GOV'TCODE 

ANN. 5 192.001 (Vernon 1999). Accordingly, county clerks are not 

required to accept them for recording. 

Attorney General of Texas 

ANDY TAYLOR 

First Assistant Attorney General 

CLARK RENT ERVIN 

Deputy Attorney General - General Counsel 

ELIZABETH ROBINSON 

Chair, Opinion Committee 

James E. Tourtelott 

Assistant Attorney General - Opinion Committee