Shortly before her wedding, the to be bride was killed in a car accident. The insurer refused to compensate the spouse.
The Supreme Court accepted the insurer’s contention and held that the spouse is not entitled to a common-law spouse status. A condition for the recognition of common-law marriage is the couple’s intention to apply to their relationship the set of economic rights and obligations arising from the marriage laws. The institution of common-law marriage is an alternative to the institution of marriage and not an intermediate stage between friendship and marriage. Therefore, the declaration of intention to marry, cannot serve as an indication that the couple intended to apply the rights and obligations arising from the marriage laws earlier, and it can even be seen as an implicit agreement that these consequences will not apply until after the time of marriage. Here, the couple intended to marry in the future, but it is not unreasonable to contend that this intention indicates that they did not intend to apply the obligations arising from the status of marriage prior to the time of marriage. Therefore, in the absence of other evidence that they intended to apply these obligations prior to the wedding, the spouse is not entitled to a common-law spouse and therefore is not entitled to compensation from the insurer.