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Cohabitation and Alimony
In June 2005, the Florida State Legislature amended its modification and enforcement statute, ' 61.14, Fla. Stat., to provide that a 'court may reduce or terminate an award of alimony upon specific written findings ' that ' a supportive relationship has existed between the obligee and a person with whom the obligee resides.' While the statute obviously only applies to the State of Florida, it raises issues for drafters of marital settlement agreements in other states. The purpose of this article is to explore some of the questions that a family-law practitioner should be asking and considering in the drafting of a marital settlement agreement given the Florida experience in the area of post-judgment cohabitation of a recipient spouse.
Historical Perspective
Florida's courts had long taken the legislature to task for its failure to include cohabitation as a ground for termination or reduction of alimony, and thus, in the opinion of many, treating a cohabitating obligee more favorably than an obligee who remarries:
The Florida district courts of appeal have given tacit, if not express, approval to the continuation of support alimony even though the recipient spouse has established a meretricious relationship involving cohabitation as man and wife without the solemnization required to make it a legal marriage. We point out this incongruity primarily to identify the need for specific legislation directly addressing the treatment of alimony payments to a recipient spouse living in a state of unsolemnized marriage. Lee v. Lee, 544 So.2d 1083, 1088 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989);
It is invidious and illogical for the law to discriminate against those who enter into de jure marriages and favor those who enter into de facto marriages instead'. Lowry v. Lowry, 512 So.2d 1142 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987).
Jeb Bush, then Governor of Florida, opined that ' ' current Florida law arguably encourages ex-spouses to cohabit with new partners and avoid marriage in an effort to preserve alimony payments.'
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