Leavenworth ? Joe Gardiner said his father would have been pleased by the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling that a marriage between a man and a transsexual woman isn’t valid in Kansas.

On Friday, the court ruled because the marriage between Joe Gardiner’s father, Marshall Gardiner, and J’Noel Gardiner wasn’t valid, she couldn’t inherit half her late husband’s $2.5 million estate.

They were married in 1998 when he was 85 and she was 40. He died the next year of a heart attack without leaving a will. J’Noel Gardiner was born a man, but had sex change surgeries in 1994 and 1995.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this, but I think it worked out like Marshall would have wanted,” Joe Gardiner told reporters after the court’s ruling.

The son said his father bought a house in Parkville, Mo., where J’Noel Gardiner lived but put the title only in his name. The son also said his father wouldn’t marry until after J’Noel Gardiner signed a waiver to the estate.

Joe Gardiner said he believes his father wasn’t aware of J’Noel Gardiner’s surgeries until after the marriage.

But J’Noel Gardiner always has said her husband knew before the marriage.

Her attorney, Sanford Krigel, of Kansas City, Mo., said his client wasn’t giving interviews. Krigel said he was disappointed by the ruling and his client is weighing legal options.

Joe Gardiner’s attorney, John Thompson, Leavenworth, said the ruling should put an end to the issue. Thompson said it probably would take months to settle the estate. Joe Gardiner, 54, a Web page designer with a foot-long beard, said he didn’t know what he would do with the inheritance.