To prove a meretricious relationship under Georgia’s live-in-lover law, the paying spouse must show that the two people living together are sexually intimate or share living expenses. Either one is enough.
What “Meretricious” Means
OCGA 19-6-19(b) does not define the word, so the Georgia Supreme Court did in Hathcock v. Hathcock, 249 Ga. 74 (1982). A trial judge had told the jury the relationship had to be one from which the former wife “derives some economic benefit.” That was too narrow. The statute reaches a relationship “similar or akin to marriage (including either sexual intercourse or the sharing of living expenses),” so it “applies upon proof of sexual intercourse” without proof of shared expenses, and equally upon proof that the former spouse “received from, gave to, or shared with the third party expenses of their cohabitation” without proof of sex.
What the Proof Looks Like
In Provenzano v. Jones, 302 Ga. 139 (2017), the former wife “admitted the sexual nature of the relationship and that she shared a household and related expenses” with her boyfriend, and the reduction of her alimony was affirmed.
An admission is not required. Hathcock confirmed that “sexual misconduct may be proven in such civil actions by circumstantial evidence,” and a former spouse who takes the Fifth on the question can have that held against her, as a separate post explains.
The Court Cannot Write Its Own Test
The standard is Hathcock’s, not the judge’s. In Donaldson v. Donaldson, 262 Ga. 231 (1992), a trial court ordered that the former wife would forfeit a month’s alimony for any thirty days in which a man stayed past midnight more than four nights. The Supreme Court reversed. That standard was “not only unreasonably intrusive, it is also unauthorized, since it is not in accordance with that of Hathcock v. Hathcock.” The living together must also be continuous and open; our post on what counts as cohabitation covers that.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!