LEVINE v. KONVITZ, 383 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 186 N.J. 607 (2006), A-6449-03T5, FEBRUARY 6, 2006:

In order to establish a prima facie case for palimony, a plaintiff must present competent evidence showing:
(1) that the parties cohabitated;
(2) in a marriage-type relationship;
(3) that, during this period of cohabitation, defendant promised plaintiff that he/she would support him/her for life; and
(4) that this promise was made in exchange for valid consideration.
[In re Estate of Roccamonte, 174 N.J. 381 (2002); Crowe v. De Gioia, 90 N.J. 126 (1982); and Kozlowski v. Kozlowski, 80 N.J. 378 (1979).]

Cohabitation is an indispensable element of a cause of action seeking palimony support.

However, the Court specifically did not address the question of how long a period of cohabitation is required in order to satisfy this element of the cause of action — a court confronted with this issue should look to the length of the cohabitation as an indicator of the parties’ commitment to the relationship, as that may bear on the question of valid consideration. In other words, a lengthy period of cohabitation provides a more reliable indication that the relationship involved:
[A] way of life in which two people commit to each other, foregoing other liaisons and opportunities, doing for each other whatever each is capable of doing, providing companionship, and fulfilling each other’s needs, financial, emotional, physical, and social, as best as they are able.
[In re Estate of Roccamonte, 174 N.J. at 392.]

Although the quality, nature, and extent of the consideration sufficient to sustain a palimony action may differ depending on all the circumstances, the rendering of such consideration must be done in a setting of cohabitation.

Requiring cohabitation as an element of a palimony action provides a measure of advance notice and warning, to both parties to a relationship, and to their respective family members, that legal and financial consequences may result from that relationship. In this context, cohabitation requires the demonstrable act of setting up a household together. Thus, in contrast to an extramarital affair, even a long-term one, cohabitation announces to the ones most affected by the existence of the relationship, the innocent spouse and dependent children, that defendant has entered into a relationship that may result in significant and long-term impairment of family assets.

Cohabitation is the physical manifestation of “the undertaking of a way of life in which two people commit to each other, foregoing other liaisons and opportunities.” [In re Estate of Roccamonte, 174 N.J. 381, 392 (2002).]

NOTE: My legal services include family law, divorce, child support, litigation, arbitration, mediation, child custody and visitation, alimony, equitable distribution, separation agreements, palimony, PSA, property settlement agreement, premarital and prenuptial agreements, midmarriage and marital agreements.

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