Stewart v. Stewart

OPINION OF THE COURT

Eugene E. Peckham, J.

*1063This case presents what has lately become a common occurrence; a man and woman live together, sometimes for years, and then get married. The parties in this case began living together in 1986 and married in 2004. Both the parties’ pleadings are for divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment and equitable distribution. Neither fraud, partnership, nor constructive trust have been pleaded.

Here, both parties testified they met in California in 1986 when he was 17 and she was 39. Plaintiffs first husband, a firefighter, had died, leaving her sole…