New Cohabitation Case Law- The Standard for Proving Cohabitation to Terminate or Modify Alimony Just Became Easier.
On June 30, 2021 the New Jersey Appellate Court case, Temple v Temple, was approved for publication, making it binding case law in New Jersey. How does this case now make it easier to prove cohabitation- well let me explain.
Alimony or spousal support in New Jersey may be suspended or terminated if the payee cohabits with another person. N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23. This required the Court to consider six (6) non-exclusive statutory factors, which include intertwined finances, sharing of living expenses, recognition of the relationship, duration of the relationship, sharing of household chores and other relevant evidence. Prior case law had put a significant burden on the paying spouse to prove cohabitation prior to being permitted discovery toward these six statutory factors.
The facts in Temple are not uncommon in cohabitation disputes. A husband and wife divorced after a lengthy marriage with an agreement in which the husband was to pay permanent alimony to wife. Sixteen years later, the husband filed an application with the court to terminate his alimony obligation, alleging the wife had either remarried or was cohabitating with a man whom she had been in a long-term relationship post-divorce.
The wife filed a written response with her own alleged explanations as to her relationship with the gentleman, and alleged she was neither remarried nor cohabitating with him as defined by statute. The trial judge, incorrectly, accepted the wife’s written explanation as true and denied the husband’s application. In doing so, the husband was prevented from conducting discovery and obtaining disclosure of information and/or documentation which may have provided him with further evidence of the wife’s cohabitation.
The husband filed a successful appeal, and the Appellate Division reversed the trial court’s denial and remanded the case to allow husband the opportunity to seek discovery and an evidentiary hearing. In doing so, the Temple court clarified how trial courts need to approach allegations of cohabitation and under what circumstances discovery will be allowed.
While prior case law had given the impression that trial courts should only allow discovery if a high burden of proof was initially satisfied and substantial evidence was independently obtained by the alimony payor, Temple now appears to have lowered that bar substantially.
The decision in Temple is significant, and likely will allow many more alimony payors to succeed in obtaining rights to discovery from their ex-spouse to obtain evidence they would have otherwise been prevented from obtaining to rightfully prove their case and have their alimony properly reduced, suspended or terminated.
Success in cohabitation litigation largely depends on the proper timing of your filing as well as the investigation and precise presentation and application of the facts in your matter to applicable law.
Contact Georgia Fraser, Esq. at Fraser Family Law Office LLC for help with your family law or divorce issue. 609-223-2099.
