Can elderly individuals in non-marital cohabitation fight for care rights and property rights?
[2] Non-marital cohabitation among the elderly refers to a situation where a man and a woman live together continuously and stably without legally registering their marriage. Such cohabitation often disadvantages elderly women in terms of personal and property rights and obligations, such as mutual support, inheritance, identification of shared property, and children's alimony. When disputes arise from non-marital cohabitation, elderly women should learn to use the law to protect their legitimate rights and interests.
(1) Four years ago, 54-year-old Aunt Zhang began cohabiting with Qiu. Earlier this year, Aunt Zhang was hospitalized several times due to a recurrence of hepatitis. Not only did Qiu fail to provide help or care, but he also separated from Aunt Zhang for fear of infection. Aunt Zhang thought that since they had lived together for four years, he should owe her a certain duty of support and financial assistance.
(2) After five years of cohabitation, Ms. Sun and Gao experienced relationship difficulties due to family disputes and eventually agreed to end their cohabitation. However, they disagreed on the division of property. After retirement, Gao ran a paint wholesale business with an annual income of about 5 yuan, while Sun, also retired, had a monthly income of just over 1,000 yuan. Ms. Sun believed that she was only 46 at the time and chose to live with Gao, who was 60, because he earned more. Although they had not registered their marriage, the property acquired during their life together should be considered jointly owned marital property and divided equally.
[5] (FindLaw.cn)
How can someone who is abandoned due to illness seek help and care? How is jointly owned property during cohabitation determined?
(1) If they were in a legally recognized marriage, Qiu would not be permitted to abandon Aunt Zhang, nor could he refuse the mutual duty of spousal support. However, since they were in a non-marital cohabitation relationship, Aunt Zhang’s claims would not receive legal support. Nevertheless, when dissolving the unlawful cohabitation relationship and dividing property, Aunt Zhang may seek appropriate assistance and care from the other party. Article 20 of China’s Marriage Law stipulates: Husband and wife have the duty to support each other. When one party fails to fulfill the duty of support, the party in need of support has the right to demand that the other party pay support fees. However, this legal provision is premised on a lawful marital relationship registered in accordance with the law, whereas a cohabitation relationship without lawful registration of marriage does not constitute a marital relationship in the legal sense and naturally will not be protected by law. Therefore, if Aunt Zhang files a lawsuit with the People’s Court, her claims would also be dismissed.
However, according to Article 12 of the Several Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on the Trial of Cases Involving Cohabitation in the Name of Husband and Wife Without Marriage Registration: When dissolving an illegal cohabitation relationship, if one party has contracted a serious illness during the period of cohabitation that remains uncured, appropriate consideration shall be given in the division of property, or the other party shall provide one-time financial assistance.
(2) Ms. Sun's claim has no legal basis. The law treats the determination of joint property in marital relationships and non-marital relationships in fundamentally different ways. The Marriage Law and the Several Specific Opinions on the Handling of Property Division in Divorce Cases both provide that during the existence of a marital relationship, wages, bonuses, income from production and business operations, and other income derived from labor, as well as property purchased with such income by either or both spouses, shall be owned jointly by the husband and wife. As for the definition of joint property in non-marital relationships, Article 10 of the Several Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on the Trial of Cases Involving Cohabitation in the Name of Husband and Wife Without Registration of Marriage provides: upon dissolution of an unlawful cohabitation relationship, income jointly earned and property jointly purchased by both parties during the period of cohabitation shall be treated as ordinary joint property.
The key difference lies in this: in the former case, as long as the marriage is subsisting, the income of either party, such as wages, constitutes community property regardless of how great the disparity may be; in the latter case, however, what is required is “income earned and property acquired jointly by both parties.” “Jointly earned” should be understood as income derived from the parties’ joint business operations or joint labor. One party’s wages, by contrast, constitute that party’s individual earned income and certainly cannot be regarded as joint property. In this regard, women in a cohabitation relationship should take care to engage as much as possible in joint business operations or cooperative labor with the other party, so that the property acquired becomes “income earned and property acquired jointly by both parties.”
