Loss of Consortium

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RSteve

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Last week I received notice that one of my H.S. classmates died suddenly. I read the obituary and there was no cause of death. Today, the classmate who maintains our reunion website posted the specifics. She was in a department store, going down the escalator when it stopped abruptly. She fell and suffered a skull fracture. She was rushed to an ER, where she had a stroke and died. Her husband died 15 years ago. During the past seven years she had a steady boyfriend, but they didn't marry or live together. On a zoom conference one of her friends asked if her boyfriend could sue the department store for Loss of Consortium. A couple of classmate attorneys said it was very unlikely, because they could not be defined as domestic partners, because they never resided together. One attorney did, however, say that if at anytime during the seven years, they had vacationed together and stayed in the same hotel room in a common law state, the boyfriend could legally claim that they were common law married, and he could sue for Loss of Consortium. He would need evidence that they cohabitated in the hotel by producing receipts, etc.

It does send a cautionary note to couples who have avoided marriage to protect that their individual estates are passed on to their designated beneficiaries, or worst case scenario, that they have no will or trust and expect that their estate will automatically pass to their children. If they've vacationed in a common law state, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Texas, or Utah and their "partner" has receipts of a hotel stay where you stayed in a room together, the partner can claim that you are common law married.
 
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