Russell v. Russell

In 1989 the legislature repealed the Family Code provision which provided that an agreement to enter into a common-law marriage could be inferred if one of the parties proved that they lived together as husband and wife and represented to others that they were married. Today, the Court ignores this amendment and in effect holds *935that a fact finder can look to cohabitation and holding-out as circumstantial evidence of an agreement to be married. This approach is identical to the process of inferences that the legislature repealed. Under our constitution, the legislature is authorized to make…