Source: https://askalawyer.com/family-law-case-law-michelle-marvin-v-lee-marvin-supreme-court-of-california/
Timestamp: 2019-10-20 20:19:56
Document Index: 308491156

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 4000', '§ 169', '§ 172', '§ 4452', '§ 1676', '§ 1607']

Family Law Case Law MICHELLE MARVIN v. LEE MARVIN- Supreme Court of California | Ask A Lawyer
During the past 15 years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of couples living together without marrying.[1] Such nonmarital relationships lead to legal controversy when one partner dies or the couple separates. Courts of Appeal, faced with the task of determining property rights in such cases, have arrived at conflicting positions: two cases (In re Marriage of Cary (1973) 34 Cal. App.3d 345 [109 Cal. Rptr. 862]; Estate of Atherley (1975) 44 Cal. App.3d 758 [119 Cal. Rptr. 41]) have held that the Family Law Act (Civ. Code, § 4000 et seq.) requires division of the property according to community property principles, and one decision (Beckman v. Mayhew (1975) 49 Cal. App.3d 529 [122 Cal. Rptr. 604]) has rejected that holding. We take this opportunity to resolve that controversy and to declare the principles which should govern distribution of property acquired in a nonmarital relationship.
(1) Since the trial court rendered judgment for defendant on the pleadings, we must accept the allegations of plaintiff’s complaint as true, determining whether such allegations state, or can be amended to state, a cause of action. (See Sullivan v. County of Los Angeles (1974) 12 Cal.3d 710, 714-715, fn. 3 [117 Cal. Rptr. 241, 527 P.2d 865]; 4 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed. 1971) pp. 2817-2818.) We turn therefore to the specific allegations of the complaint.
Shortly thereafter plaintiff agreed to “give up her lucrative career as an entertainer [and] singer” in order to “devote her full time to defendant … as a companion, homemaker, housekeeper and cook;” in return defendant agreed to “provide for all of plaintiff’s financial support and needs for the rest of her life.”
Defendant demurred unsuccessfully, and then answered the complaint. (2) (See fn. 2.) Following extensive discovery and pretrial proceedings, the case came to trial.[2] Defendant renewed his attack on the complaint by a motion to dismiss. Since the parties had stipulated that defendant’s marriage to Betty Marvin did not terminate until the filing of a final decree of divorce in January 1967, the trial court treated defendant’s motion as one for judgment on the pleadings augmented by the stipulation.
2. (3a) Plaintiff’s complaint states a cause of action for breach of an express contract.
Defendant first and principally relies on the contention that the alleged contract is so closely related to the supposed “immoral” character of the relationship between plaintiff and himself that the enforcement of the contract would violate public policy.[4] He points to cases asserting that a contract between nonmarital partners is unenforceable if it is “involved in” an illicit relationship (see Shaw v. Shaw (1964) 227 Cal. App.2d 159, 164 [38 Cal. Rptr. 520] (dictum); Garcia v. Venegas (1951) 106 Cal. App.2d 364, 368 [235 P.2d 89] (dictum), or made in “contemplation” of such a relationship (Hill v. Estate of Westbrook (1950) 95 Cal. App.2d 599, 602 [213 P.2d 727]; see Hill v. Estate of Westbrook (1952) 39 Cal.2d 458, 460 [247 P.2d 19]; Barlow v. Collins (1958) 166 Cal. App.2d 274, 277 [333 P.2d 64] (dictum); Bridges v. Bridges (1954) 125 Cal. App.2d 359, 362 [270 P.2d 69] (dictum)). A review of the numerous California decisions concerning contracts between nonmarital partners, however, reveals that the courts have not employed such broad and uncertain standards to strike down contracts. The decisions instead disclose a narrower and more precise standard: a contract between nonmarital partners is unenforceable only to the extent that it explicitly rests upon the immoral and illicit consideration of meretricious sexual services.
In Bridges v. Bridges, supra, 125 Cal. App.2d 359 [270 P.2d 69], both parties were in the process of obtaining divorces from their erstwhile respective spouses. The two parties agreed to live together, to share equally in property acquired, and to marry when their divorces became final. The man worked as a salesman and used his savings to purchase properties. The woman kept house, cared for seven children, three from each former marriage and one from the nonmarital relationship, and helped construct improvements on the properties. When they separated, without marrying, the court awarded the woman one-half the value of the property. Rejecting the man’s contention that the contract was illegal, the court stated that: “Nowhere is it expressly testified to by anyone that there was anything in the agreement for the pooling of assets and the sharing of accumulations that contemplated meretricious relations as any part of the consideration or as any object of the agreement.” (125 Cal. App.2d at p. 363.)
Croslin v. Scott (1957) 154 Cal. App.2d 767 [316 P.2d 755] reiterates the rule established in Trutalli and Bridges. In Croslin the parties separated following a three-year nonmarital relationship. The woman then phoned the man, asked him to return to her, and suggested that he build them a house on a lot she owned. She agreed in return to place the property in joint ownership. The man built the house, and the parties lived there for several more years. When they separated, he sued to establish his interest in the property. Reversing a nonsuit, the Court of Appeal stated that “The mere fact that parties agree to live together in meretricious relationship does not necessarily make an agreement for disposition of property between them invalid. It is only when the property agreement is made in connection with the other agreement, or the illicit relationship is made a consideration of the property agreement, that the latter becomes illegal.” (154 Cal. App.2d at p. 771.)
Although the past decisions hover over the issue in the somewhat wispy form of the figures of a Chagall painting, we can abstract from those decisions a clear and simple rule. (4) The fact that a man and woman live together without marriage, and engage in a sexual relationship, does not in itself invalidate agreements between them relating to their earnings, property, or expenses. Neither is such an agreement invalid merely because the parties may have contemplated the creation or continuation of a nonmarital relationship when they entered into it. Agreements between nonmarital partners fail only to the extent that they rest upon a consideration of meretricious sexual services. Thus the rule asserted by defendant, that a contract fails if it is “involved in” or made “in contemplation” of a nonmarital relationship, cannot be reconciled with the decisions.
The three cases cited by defendant which have declined to enforce contracts between nonmarital partners involved consideration that was expressly founded upon an illicit sexual services. In Hill v. Estate of Westbrook, supra, 95 Cal. App.2d 599, the woman promised to keep house for the man, to live with him as man and wife, and to bear his children; the man promised to provide for her in his will, but died without doing so. Reversing a judgment for the woman based on the reasonable value of her services, the Court of Appeal stated that “the action is predicated upon a claim which seeks, among other things, the reasonable value of living with decedent in meretricious relationship and bearing him two children…. The law does not award compensation for living with a man as a concubine and bearing him children…. As the judgment is at least in part, for the value of the claimed services for which recovery cannot be had, it must be reversed.” (95 Cal. App.2d at p. 603.) Upon retrial, the trial court found that it could not sever the contract and place an independent value upon the legitimate services performed by claimant. We therefore affirmed a judgment for the estate. (Hill v. Estate of Westbrook (1952) 39 Cal.2d 458 [247 P.2d 19].)
In the only other cited decision refusing to enforce a contract, Updeck v. Samuel (1954) 123 Cal. App.2d 264 [266 P.2d 822], the contract “was based on the consideration that the parties live together as husband and wife.” (123 Cal. App.2d at p. 267.) Viewing the contract as calling for adultery, the court held it illegal.[6]
The principle that a contract between nonmarital partners will be enforced unless expressly and inseparably based upon an illicit consideration of sexual services not only represents the distillation of the decisional law, but also offers a far more precise and workable standard than that advocated by defendant. Our recent decision in In re Marriage of Dawley (1976) 17 Cal.3d 342 [131 Cal. Rptr. 3, 551 P.2d 323] offers a close analogy. Rejecting the contention that an antenuptial agreement is invalid if the parties contemplated a marriage of short duration, we pointed out in Dawley that a standard based upon the subjective contemplation of the parties is uncertain and unworkable; such a test, we stated, “might invalidate virtually all antenuptial agreements on the ground that the parties contemplated dissolution … but it provides no principled basis for determining which antenuptial agreements offend public policy and which do not.” (17 Cal.3d 342, 352.)
(5) Defendant secondly relies upon the ground suggested by the trial court: that the 1964 contract violated public policy because it impaired the community property rights of Betty Marvin, defendant’s lawful wife. Defendant points out that his earnings while living apart from his wife before rendition of the interlocutory decree were community property under 1964 statutory law (former Civ. Code, §§ 169, 169.2)[7] and that defendant’s agreement with plaintiff purported to transfer to her a half interest in that community property. But whether or not defendant’s contract with plaintiff exceeded his authority as manager of the community property (see former Civ. Code, § 172), defendant’s argument fails for the reason that an improper transfer of community property is not void ab initio, but merely voidable at the instance of the aggrieved spouse. See Ballinger v. Ballinger (1937) 9 Cal.2d 330, 334 [70 P.2d 629; Trimble v. Trimble (1933) 219 Cal. 340, 344 [26 P.2d 477].)
(6) Defendant’s third contention is noteworthy for the lack of authority advanced in its support. He contends that enforcement of the oral agreement between plaintiff and himself is barred by Civil Code section 5134, which provides that “All contracts for marriage settlements must be in writing….” A marriage settlement, however, is an agreement in contemplation of marriage in which each party agrees to release or modify the property rights which would otherwise arise from the marriage. (See Corker v. Corker (1891) 87 Cal. 643, 648 [25 P. 922].) The contract at issue here does not conceivably fall within that definition, and thus is beyond the compass of section 5134.[9]
(7) Defendant finally argues that enforcement of the contract is barred by Civil Code section 43.5, subdivision (d), which provides that “No cause of action arises for … breach of promise of marriage.” This rather strained contention proceeds from the premise that a promise of marriage impliedly includes a promise to support and to pool property acquired after marriage (see Boyd v. Boyd (1964) 228 Cal. App.2d 374 [39 Cal. Rptr. 400]) to the conclusion that pooling and support agreements not part of or accompanied by promise of marriage are barred by the section. We conclude that section 43.5 is not reasonably susceptible to the interpretation advanced by defendant, a conclusion demonstrated by the fact that since section 43.5 was enacted in 1939, numerous cases have enforced pooling agreements between nonmarital partners, and in none did court or counsel refer to section 43.5.
(3b) In summary, we base our opinion on the principle that adults who voluntarily live together and engage in sexual relations are nonetheless as competent as any other persons to contract respecting their earnings and property rights. Of course, they cannot lawfully contract to pay for the performance of sexual services, for such a contract is, in essence, an agreement for prostitution and unlawful for that reason. But they may agree to pool their earnings and to hold all property acquired during the relationship in accord with the law governing community property; conversely they may agree that each partner’s earnings and the property acquired from those earnings remains the separate property of the earning partner.[10] So long as the agreement does not rest upon illicit meretricious consideration, the parties may order their economic affairs as they choose, and no policy precludes the courts from enforcing such agreements.
3. (8a) Plaintiff’s complaint can be amended to state a cause of action founded upon theories of implied contract or equitable relief.
As we have noted, both causes of action in plaintiff’s complaint allege an express contract; neither assert any basis for relief independent from the contract. In In re Marriage of Cary, supra, 34 Cal. App.3d 345, however, the Court of Appeal held that, in view of the policy of the Family Law Act, property accumulated by nonmarital partners in an actual family relationship should be divided equally. Upon examining the Cary opinion, the parties to the present case realized that plaintiff’s alleged relationship with defendant might arguably support a cause of action independent of any express contract between the parties. The parties have therefore briefed and discussed the issue of the property rights of a nonmarital partner in the absence of an express contract. Although our conclusion that plaintiff’s complaint states a cause of action based on an express contract alone compels us to reverse the judgment for defendant, resolution of the Cary issue will serve both to guide the parties upon retrial and to resolve a conflict presently manifest in published Court of Appeal decisions.
The majority opinion in Vallera did not expressly bar recovery based upon an implied contract, nor preclude resort to equitable remedies. But Vallera’s broad assertion that equitable considerations “are not present” in the case of a nonmarital relationship (21 Cal.2d at p. 685) led the Courts of Appeal to interpret the language to preclude recovery based on such theories. (See Lazzarevich v. Lazzarevich (1948) 88 Cal. App.2d 708, 719 [200 P.2d 49]; Oakley v. Oakley (1947) 82 Cal. App.2d 188, 191-192 [185 P.2d 848].)[12]
Consequently, when the issue of the rights of a nonmarital partner reached this court in Keene v. Keene (1962) 57 Cal.2d 657 [21 Cal. Rptr. 593, 371 P.2d 329], the claimant forwent reliance upon theories of contract implied in law or fact. Asserting that she had worked on her partner’s ranch and that her labor had enhanced its value, she confined her cause of action to the claim that the court should impress a resulting trust on the property derived from the sale of the ranch. The court limited its opinion accordingly, rejecting her argument on the ground that the rendition of services gives rise to a resulting trust only when the services aid in acquisition of the property, not in its subsequent improvement. (57 Cal.2d at p. 668.) Justice Peters, dissenting, attacked the majority’s distinction between the rendition of services and the contribution of funds or property; he maintained that both property and services furnished valuable consideration, and potentially afforded the ground for a resulting trust.
Thus in summary, the cases prior to Cary exhibited a schizophrenic inconsistency. By enforcing an express contract between nonmarital partners unless it rested upon an unlawful consideration, the courts applied a common law principle as to contracts. Yet the courts disregarded the common law principle that holds that implied contracts can arise from the conduct of the parties.[16] Refusing to enforce such contracts, the courts spoke of leaving the parties “in the position in which they had placed themselves” (Oakley v. Oakley, supra, 82 Cal. App.2d 188, 192), just as if they were guilty parties in pari delicto.
Still another inconsistency in the prior cases arises from their treatment of property accumulated through joint effort. To the extent that a partner had contributed funds or property, the cases held that the partner obtains a proportionate share in the acquisition, despite the lack of legal standing of the relationship. (Vallera v. Vallera, supra, 21 Cal.2d at p. 685; see Weak v. Weak, supra, 202 Cal. App.2d 632, 639.) Yet courts have refused to recognize just such an interest based upon the contribution of services. As Justice Curtis points out “Unless it can be argued that a woman’s services as cook, housekeeper, and homemaker are valueless, it would seem logical that if, when she contributes money to the purchase of property, her interest will be protected, then when she contributes her services in the home, her interest in property accumulated should be protected.” (Vallera v. Vallera, supra, 21 Cal.2d 681, 686-687 (dis. opn.); see Bruch, op. cit., supra, 10 Family L.Q. 101, 110-114; Article, Illicit Cohabitation: The Impact of the Vallera and Keene Cases on the Rights of the Meretricious Spouse (1973) 6 U.C. Davis L.Rev. 354, 369-370; Comment (1972) 48 Wash.L.Rev. 635, 641.)
Reviewing the prior decisions which had denied relief to the homemaking partner, the Court of Appeal reasoned that those decisions rested upon a policy of punishing persons guilty of cohabitation without marriage. The Family Law Act, the court observed, aimed to eliminate fault or guilt as a basis for dividing marital property. But once fault or guilt is excluded, the court reasoned, nothing distinguishes the property rights of a nonmarital “spouse” from those of a putative spouse. Since the latter is entitled to half the “`quasi marital property'” (Civ. Code, § 4452), the Court of Appeal concluded that, giving effect to the policy of the Family Law Act, a nonmarital cohabitator should also be entitled to half the property accumulated during an “actual family relationship.” (34 Cal. App.3d at p. 353.)[18]
(9) If Cary is interpreted as holding that the Family Law Act requires an equal division of property accumulated in nonmarital “actual family relationships,” then we agree with Beckman v. Mayhew that Cary distends the act. No language in the Family Law Act addresses the property rights of nonmarital partners, and nothing in the legislative history of the act suggests that the Legislature considered that subject.[19] The delineation of the rights of nonmarital partners before 1970 had been fixed entirely by judicial decision; we see no reason to believe that the Legislature, by enacting the Family Law Act, intended to change that state of affairs.
The argument that granting remedies to the nonmarital partners would discourage marriage must fail; as Cary pointed out, “with equal or greater force the point might be made that the pre-1970 rule was calculated to cause the income-producing partner to avoid marriage and thus retain the benefit of all of his or her accumulated earnings.” (34 Cal. App.3d at p. 353.) Although we recognize the well-established public policy to foster and promote the institution of marriage (see Deyoe v. Superior Court (1903) 140 Cal. 476, 482 [74 P. 28]), perpetuation of judicial rules which result in an inequitable distribution of property accumulated during a nonmarital relationship is neither a just nor an effective way of carrying out that policy.
(8b) We conclude that the judicial barriers that may stand in the way of a policy based upon the fulfillment of the reasonable expectations of the parties to a nonmarital relationship should be removed. As we have explained, the courts now hold that express agreements will be enforced unless they rest on an unlawful meretricious consideration. We add that in the absence of an express agreement, the courts may look to a variety of other remedies in order to protect the parties’ lawful expectations.[24]
Since we have determined that plaintiff’s complaint states a cause of action for breach of an express contract, and, as we have explained, can be amended to state a cause of action independent of allegations of express contract,[26] we must conclude that the trial court erred in granting defendant a judgment on the pleadings.
In Hayutin v. Weintraub, 207 Cal. App.2d 497 [24 Cal. Rptr. 761], the court said at pages 508-509 in respect to such a motion that had it been granted, it “would have required a long continuance for the purpose of canvassing wholly new factual issues, a redoing of the elaborate discovery procedures previously had, all of which would have imposed upon defendant and his witnesses substantial inconvenience … and upon defendant needless and substantial additional expense…. The court did not err in denying leave to file the proposed amended complaint.” (See also: Nelson v. Specialty Records, Inc., 11 Cal. App.3d 126, 138-139 [89 Cal. Rptr. 540]; Moss Estate Co. v. Adler, 41 Cal.2d 581, 585 [261 P.2d 732]; Vogel v. Thrifty Drug Co., 43 Cal.2d 184, 188 [272 P.2d 1].) “The ruling of the trial judge will not be disturbed upon appeal absent a showing by appellant of a clear abuse of discretion. [Citations.]” (Nelson v. Specialty Records, Inc., supra, 11 Cal. App.3d at p. 139.) No such showing here appears.
[6] Although not cited by defendant, the only California precedent which supports his position is Heaps v. Toy (1942) 54 Cal. App.2d 178 [128 P.2d 813]. In that case the woman promised to leave her job, to refrain from marriage, to be a companion to the man, and to make a permanent home for him; he agreed to support the woman and her child for life. The Court of Appeal held the agreement invalid as a contract in restraint of marriage (Civ. Code, § 1676) and, alternatively, as “contrary to good morals” (Civ. Code, § 1607). The opinion does not state that sexual relations formed any part of the consideration for the contract, nor explain how — unless the contract called for sexual relations — the woman’s employment as a companion and housekeeper could be contrary to good morals.
[8] Defendant also contends that the contract is invalid as an agreement to promote or encourage divorce. (See 1 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (8th ed.) pp. 390-392 and cases there cited.) The contract between plaintiff and defendant did not, however, by its terms require defendant to divorce Betty, nor reward him for so doing. Moreover, the principle on which defendant relies does not apply when the marriage in question is beyond redemption (Glickman v. Collins (1975) 13 Cal.3d 852, 858-859 [120 Cal. Rptr. 76, 533 P.2d 204]); whether or not defendant’s marriage to Betty was beyond redemption when defendant contracted with plaintiff is obviously a question of fact which cannot be resolved by judgment on the pleadings.
[11] We note that a deliberate decision to avoid the strictures of the community property system is not the only reason that couples live together without marriage. Some couples may wish to avoid the permanent commitment that marriage implies, yet be willing to share equally any property acquired during the relationship; others may fear the loss of pension, welfare, or tax benefits resulting from marriage (see Beckman v. Mayhew, supra, 49 Cal. App.3d 529). Others may engage in the relationship as a possible prelude to marriage. In lower socio-economic groups the difficulty and expense of dissolving a former marriage often leads couples to choose a nonmarital relationship; many unmarried couples may also incorrectly believe that the doctrine of common law marriage prevails in California, and thus that they are in fact married. Consequently we conclude that the mere fact that a couple have not participated in a valid marriage ceremony cannot serve as a basis for a court’s inference that the couple intend to keep their earnings and property separate and independent; the parties’ intention can only be ascertained by a more searching inquiry into the nature of their relationship.
[13] The Family Law Act, in Civil Code section 4452, classifies property acquired during a putative marriage as “`quasi-marital property,'” and requires that such property be divided upon dissolution of the marriage in accord with Civil Code section 4800.
[18] The court in Cary also based its decision upon an analysis of Civil Code section 4452, which specifies the property rights of a putative spouse. Section 4452 states that if the “court finds that either party or both parties believed in good faith that the marriage was valid, the court should declare such party or parties to have the status of a putative spouse, and,… shall divide, in accordance with Section 4800, that property acquired during the union….” Since section 4800 requires an equal division of community property, Cary interpreted section 4452 to require an equal division of the property of a putative marriage, so long as one spouse believed in good faith that the marriage was valid. Thus under section 4452, Cary concluded, the “guilty spouse” (the spouse who knows the marriage is invalid) has the same right to half the property as does the “innocent” spouse.
Cary then reasoned that if the “guilty” spouse to a putative marriage is entitled to one-half the marital property, the “guilty” partner in a nonmarital relationship should also receive one-half of the property. Otherwise, the court stated, “We should be obliged to presume a legislative intent that a person, who by deceit leads another to believe a valid marriage exists between them, shall be legally guaranteed half of the property they acquire even though most, or all, may have resulted from the earnings of the blameless partner. At the same time we must infer an inconsistent legislative intent that two persons who, candidly with each other, enter upon an unmarried family relationship, shall be denied any judicial aid whatever in the assertion of otherwise valid property rights.” (34 Cal. App.3d at p. 352.)
[21] Justice Finley of the Washington Supreme Court explains: “Under such circumstances [the dissolution of a nonmarital relationship], this court and the courts of other jurisdictions have, in effect, sometimes said, `We will wash our hands of such disputes. The parties should and must be left to their own devices, just where they find themselves.’ To me, such pronouncements seem overly fastidious and a bit fatuous. They are unrealistic and, among other things, ignore the fact that an unannounced (but nevertheless effective and binding) rule of law is inherent in any such terminal statements by a court of law. The unannounced but inherent rule is simply that the party who has title, or in some instances who is in possession, will enjoy the rights of ownership of the property concerned. The rule often operates to the great advantage of the cunning and the shrewd, who wind up with possession of the property, or title to it in their names, at the end of a so-called meretricious relationship. So, although the courts proclaim that they will have nothing to do with such matters, the proclamation in itself establishes, as to the parties involved, an effective and binding rule of law which tends to operate purely by accident or perhaps by reason of the cunning, anticipatory designs of just one of the parties.” (West v. Knowles (1957) 50 Wn.2d 311 [311 P.2d 689, 692] (conc. opn.).)
[24] We do not seek to resurrect the doctrine of common law marriage, which was abolished in California by statute in 1895. (See Norman v. Thomson (1898) 121 Cal. 620, 628 [54 P. 143]; Estate of Abate (1958) 166 Cal. App.2d 282, 292 [333 P.2d 200].) Thus we do not hold that plaintiff and defendant were “married,” nor do we extend to plaintiff the rights which the Family Law Act grants valid or putative spouses; we hold only that she has the same rights to enforce contracts and to assert her equitable interest in property acquired through her effort as does any other unmarried person.
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