Reference no: EM133327274

Case Study: Common Law Marriage Hypo

Sally and Stu have lived together as a couple for 30 years in the same state, have had joint checking accounts, and have held themselves out to the public as man and wife. They never officially married, and they have no children. They consider themselves to have a common-law marriage, although they have never looked up whether that is legal in their state. When Stu died at the age of 66, his doctor believed it was due to complications arising from Gulf War Syndrome. The documents for Stu's military pension specify that the proceeds can go to his spouse. Stu never got around to specifically naming Sally as the beneficiary to his pension. Assume, just for purposes of this breakout, that the military recognizes common law marriage.
You are not expected to know legal rules off the top of your head (nor should you assume you know legal rules that you don't, in fact, know).
Don't make assumptions about the law such as what spouse means, what common law marriage means, or whether your state recognizes it:
Questions:

1. Make a list of preliminary issues. Preliminary issues are not the same as well-framed legal issues that include both facts and the law. This step is a tool for helping you understand the legal rule(s) you have to find. It is helpful to frame the preliminary issues BEFORE you go hunting for the legal rule. So, make a list of the potential legal issues or things you'd like to know about.

2. Based on your list of preliminary issues, articulate the LEGAL ISSUE in a a way that gives the lawyer in your firm specific info about the legal rule she needs to find. So, you are going to articulate the legal issue, without knowing that your jurisdiction, because you don't know your jurisdiction.

3. Next, assume you are in NY where there is no common law marriage. Revise the legal issue with this new info.

4. Next, assume you are in Rhode Island, which recognizes common law marriage as legal. Here is the Rhode Island rule:

"A common law marriage requires "evidence that the parties seriously intended to enter into the husband-wife relationship." (Sardonis v. Sardonis). The conduct of the parties must be "of such a character as to lead to a belief in the community that they were married. (Id.) The elements of intent and belief are demonstrated by "inference from cohabitation, declarations, reputation among kindred and friends, and other competent circumstantial evidence." (Id.)

a. Make a list/chart that represents the elements listed above.

b. Articulate an issue using our facts and the Rhode Island rule on common law marriage.

Question:

• What is a list of preliminary issues?
• Without knowing the jurisdiction that we're in, what is our preliminary legal issue?
• Whether Sally qualifies as a spouse, entitled to stews military pension under the laws of their state and we don't know their state when, what are they doing? When they use? What are the facts of the when?
• That will apply, no matter what jurisdiction we're in, what are the facts that suggest they could be the equivalent of a married couple?