Opinion ID: 1465938
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Belief in the Community

Text: To establish a common-law marriage, Paulette also was required to provide clear and convincing evidence of a belief in the community that she and Todd were married. See Sardonis, 106 R.I. at 472, 261 A.2d at 24. Such a belief may be inferred from cohabitation, declarations, and reputation among friends and family. Id. The reputation, however, must be general and uniform. Williams, 21 R.I. at 403, 43 A. at 1037. The parties presented conflicting evidence about whether there was a reputation in the community that they were married to each other. To support her claim, Paulette testified that she often introduced Todd as her husband to various people, including her doctor, her son's substance-abuse counselor, her business associates, and her home decorator. Also, certain family members referred to her on occasion as daughter-in-law or sister-in-law. She noted that Todd took on the role of father of the bride for her daughter's wedding and that Todd's children called her stepmother. Additionally, she testified that her friend/business associate referred to Todd as her husband, she talked about her husband to her business associates, and she used Todd's last name in her business dealings and contracts. Todd's mother and sister also conceded that they may have introduced Paulette as an in-law on occasion. On the other hand, Todd testified that the people who knew the parties were aware that they were not married. The record is simply devoid of any testimony that any member of Todd's family believed that the couple was married. Indeed, Todd's sister testified that in 1999 she made a family tree and displayed it at a family party, but she did not list Paulette or her children on the family tree. She also testified that the family occasionally would ask the couple why they would not get married, and they would respond that they did not want to ruin a good thing. Furthermore, the wedding invitation for Paulette's daughter's wedding did not explicitly refer to Todd as Paulette's husband. There was also evidence that Todd's friends did not believe the parties were married. Furthermore, the evidence established that Todd and Paulette did not pool their assets or finances, they maintained separate checking accounts, they did not jointly own any vehicles, they did not have any joint credit cards, and they did not own any real property together. It seems clear that the parties lived in a family-like relationship, that they had the reputation of living together in a long-term relationship, and that Paulette's children viewed Todd as a father. This, however, does not rise to the level of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, a general and uniform community belief that they were married. It is clear to us that the evidence about the parties' reputation in the community was mixed and subject to different interpretations. On various occasions Paulette presented herself and Todd as married to her business associates and people they met for the first time, but the majority of their friends and family, those individuals that constituted their community, did not believe they were married. None of Todd's family members testified that they believed Todd and Paulette were married. Furthermore, the evidence revealed that other than Paulette's business, in which she used the name Smith, public records and private accounts were in their own names as single persons. Even in Paulette's business, she did not begin to use the surname Smith until about ten years after she alleges the common-law marriage began. The reputation was, therefore, limited and inconsistent, and the evidence of a community belief certainly neither was clear nor convincing. We hold that the trial justice did not misconceive or overlook relevant evidence, nor was she clearly wrong when she found that Paulette did not meet her burden of establishing a common-law marriage. See DeMelo, 844 A.2d at 177. We fully comprehend the unhappy circumstances that surround the breakup of this relationship, but we must make our decision according to the principles of our well-settled law and not according to the unfortunate consequences of this case or any poor personal conduct of the defendant.