In re Marriage of Hogsett & Neale Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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In re Marriage of Hogsett & Neale
Colorado Supreme Court
478 P.3d 713 (2021)

Common law marriage evolved to protect women and children in committed, but non legal relationships.

In In re Marriage of Hogsett and Neale, the Colorado Supreme Court reconsidered how to prove a common law marriage.

Edi Hogsett and Marcia Neale were together for thirteen years, but never formally married. As same sex partners, they couldn't have married legally, until shortly after they separated.

The parties shared a home, but didn't refer to each other as spouses. They had joint bank and credit card accounts. Hogsett listed Neale as a beneficiary and domestic partner on certain medical and legal documents, but Neale didn't reciprocate.

Hogsett and Neale filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. The parties mediated a separation agreement, acknowledging that they'd been in a common law marriage and dividing their property.

They agreed to dismiss their petition and and implement the separation agreement independently after learning that the trial court would have had to find that a marriage had existed before it could enter a dissolution order.

Later, Neale didn't comply with the separation agreement and told Hogsett that she didn't believe they'd been married. Hogsett filed another petition for dissolution of marriage.

Neale moved to dismiss, asserting that she and Hogsett had never been married under common law.

At the hearing, Neale testified that she'd filed the previous petition because she'd believed due to bad legal advice that she had to get a divorce to unwind the party's finances.

Neale also testified that she didn't believe in marriage.

The trial court granted Neale's motion, finding that although Hogshead believed the two had been married, Neale didn't. The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed. The Colorado Supreme Court granted cert.

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