Breach Of Contract Claim Survives

A majority of the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department has held that one party to a long term committed same-sex relationship stated a cause of action for breach of an oral agreement.

Each had had a biological child that the other adopted. The plaintiff stayed at home while the defendant continued to work.

They ended the relationship in 2007 and were never married.

The court

The parties lived together in a committed, same-sex relationship for nearly 18 years, and are the parents of two children. After the relationship ended, the plaintiff commenced this action seeking, inter alia, damages for breach of an alleged oral “joint venture/partnership” agreement whereby she would share in assets, including the defendant’s retirement contributions and earnings, in exchange for leaving her full-time job to care for the parties’ children. The plaintiff also asserted several equitable causes of action predicated upon the alleged oral agreement to share in the defendant’s retirement contributions and earnings. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the complaint is sufficiently pleaded to state a cause of action sounding in breach of contract.

Justice Dillon concurred in part and dissented in part:

Distilled to its essence, the plaintiff in this action seeks “equitable distribution” of the defendant’s assets and future pension benefits without alleging in the complaint that the defendant had promised to share them if the parties did not stay together. Indeed, there is no allegation that the parties had any meeting of the minds as to the distribution of property or assets upon a termination of their relationship. Absent such an allegation, and absent an affidavit from the plaintiff clarifying or expanding her description of the parties’ agreement to cover such an eventuality, the complaint fails to state a cause of action. The plaintiff’s theory of recovery is dependent upon implying terms for the distribution of retirement benefits to circumstances involving the dissolution of the parties’ familial relationship. The Supreme Court properly refrained from implying such provisions into the oral contract in determining that, under the circumstances alleged, the “complaint lacks a contract for the court to enforce.”

No aspect of this partial dissent speaks to the merits of the New York’s more recent enactment of the Marriage Equality Act. This Court is sensitive to the complications occasioned by various forms of familial relationships that necessarily result in financial agreements or entanglements. The judiciary, however, is limited in addressing and determining the ownership and/or distribution of familial assets, absent either the existence of a lawfully recognized marriage or an enforceable expressed contract between persons in a cohabitational relationship.

(Mike Frisch)