Marvin Action and #palimony issues. Examples of how experts such as appraisers and forensic accountants can provide great value in these unique palimony cases.

1. The Truth - The Winning Argument for Your Case.

2. Marvin Actions
Non-Marital
Cohabitation
( Get ready for battle)

3. Does Sam Have a Case?

4. Urban Legends

5. How long must Sam and Lauren live together
to have a common law marriage?

6. What if Sam and Lauren have kids?
Are they as good as married?

7. Can there Be
Same Sex Marvin Actions?

8. Marvin Law Basics
• Brought in civil court, not in family court.
• A case based in contract.
• Can be a written, oral or an implied agreement.

9. Basic Elements of a Contract
• Offer
• Acceptance
• Consideration

10. What Consideration Did Sam Provide?

11. Domestic Services
• Companionship
• Maintaining Social Calendar
• Cooking
• Maintaining a tidy home
• Working at the other’s business
for no or little compensation.

12. What About Meretricious Services?

13. What Consideration Did Lauren Provide?

14. But How Do You Explain...
They Never Got Married!?

15. Common Explanations
• Bad Credit
• Protection from claims by creditors
• Prior on going divorce
• Avoid Spousal Support Termination
• Religion / Philosophic beliefs
• Against the Institution of Marriage
• “Married” under their own religious Beliefs
• We don’t have kids, no need to get married - “Don’t you trust me? I will always
take care of you!”

16. What Are Sam’s Legal Remedies
● Division of Property
● Palimony (Pal + Support = “Palimony”)
● Quantum Meruit (Value of Services)
● Quiet Title & Partition of Real Property
● Breach of Joint Venture Agreement

17. WHERE DO THE EXPERTS COME IN?

18. Monetize the Value of Labor Provided
by the Unpaid/Underpaid Companion
• This is a claim in “Quantum Meruit”
• A Vocational Evaluator and an Economist can help.

19. Business Valuations

20. Tax Consultants
• Involves very complex issues of how to effectuate a settlement and
minimize taxes.
• Inter-partner transfers of property are not necessarily tax free as
they are with division of property pursuant to a divorce. Double
taxation can occur.
• Palimony may in effect be taxable to the payer and recipient.

21. TRACING
• Tracing Funds
• Homemaker: “Where did our retirement funds go”?
• Homemaker: “You started that business with my money”!
• Homemaker: “You bought that first house with my money”!
• Moneymaker: “I had all this money before we got married”!
• Tracing Title:
• Money from a joint account ends up in Moneymaker’s account.
• Changes in title to property through sale or refinance.

22. ESI
• Emails
• Financial Records
• Other Lost/Destroyed
Evidence

23. Real and Personal Property Appraisals
Real Property:
• Commercial and Residential
• Fair Market or Fair Rental
Value
Intellectual Property:
• Patents
• Trademarks
• Copyrights
Personal Property:
• Exotic Cars
• Boats
• Airplanes
• Musical
Instruments
• Antiques
• Collections

24. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
PEOPLE V. SANCHEZ

25. “A person is qualified to testify as an expert if he
has special knowledge, skill, experience, training or
education sufficient to qualify him as an expert on
the subject to which his testimony relates. (…)”
[Evid. Code 720(a)]
What is an Expert?

26. He/she can offer an opinion to a
matter that is beyond the common
experience of an ordinary person.
[Evid. Code 801 interpreted]
What Can an Expert Do?

27. General Definition of Hearsay
An out-of-court statement offered
for the truth of the matter asserted.
[Evid. Code 1200 paraphrased]

28. Example
Question: What did defendant
say before she bashed plaintiff
over the head?
Answer: STOP THIEF!!!

29. MAKE SURE YOU ARE PROVIDED WITH
AUTHENTICATED DOCUMENTS

30. DISTINGUISH
What information you may rely
upon …
v.
What information you may relay
to the jury

31. You may rely on the type of hearsay
information customarially relied upon by
experts in your field
CPA -> AAA Bond Interest Rates
Business Evaluator -> Cap. Rates
Property Appraiser -> Comps

32. You may also testify about the general
body of knowledge from your training
and experience that makes you an expert
Doctor -> How a person’s circulatory system works
CPA -> General Accounting Principles
Accident Reconstructionist -> How anti-lock breaks work

33. You may not comment on case specific
facts or hearsay unless...
●You are cross-
examined about it,
or...
● It is properly
authenticated, and
there is an exception
to the hearsay rule.

34. USE OF THE HYPOTHETICAL
QUESTION
The examiner may ask an expert to
assume a certain set of case specific facts
for which there is independent admissible
evidence, and then ask the expert what
conclusions he/she would draw based on
those assumed facts.

35. EXAMPLE
Assume defendant was driving his 57
Chevy in the school zone marked at 15
mph, on a hot dry day, on flat asphalt,
slammed on the breaks, and left skid
marks 60 feet in length. Was he driving
within the speed limit?

36. So, living in sin?

37. Count us in!

38. Questions?