What Is a "Meretricious Relationship"?: An Analysis of Cohabitant Property Rights under Connell v. Francisco

Authors

Gavin M. Parr

Abstract

In the 1995 case Connell v. Francisco, the Supreme Court of Washington adopted an innovative and groundbreaking rule to resolve the property rights of cohabitants upon separation. After Connell, upon termination of a "meretricious relationship," a trial court must perform a just and equitable distribution of the property acquired during the relationship that would have been community property had the parties been married. In adopting this rule, the supreme court sought to resolve property rights arising out of cohabitation in a predictable and equitable manner while maintaining the distinction between marriage and cohabitation. Unfortunately, the meretricious relationship fiction the court adopted as a prerequisite to ajust and equitable distribution tends to frustrate these goals. This Comment proposes that the supreme court replace the meretricious relationship fiction with a rule requiring trial courts to perform ajust and equitable distribution on the termination of any "intimate cohabitation."

First Page

1243

Recommended Citation

Gavin M. Parr, Notes and Comments, What Is a "Meretricious Relationship"?: An Analysis of Cohabitant Property Rights under Connell v. Francisco, 74 Wash. L. Rev. 1243 (1999).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol74/iss4/8