A marriage solemnized before any person professing to be a minister or a priest, imam, rabbi, or similar official of any religious organization in this state or professing to be an authorized officer thereof, is not void, nor shall the validity thereof be in any way affected on account of any want of power or authority in such person, if such marriage be consummated with a belief on the part of the persons so married, or either of them, that they have been lawfully joined in marriage.
RCW 26.04.060
Marriage before unauthorized cleric—Effect.
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 73 Wash. 2d 716 - Armijo v. Wesselius (1968)
Most recently applied in Pitcher v. Stout (July 1969)
2012 c 3 s 5 (Referendum Measure No. 74, approved November 6, 2012); 1975-'76 2nd ex.s. c 42 s 25; Code 1881 s 2388; 1866 p 83 ss 10 and 11; 1854 p 405 s 6; RRS s 8442
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.