In his On the Square post today, Wesley J. Smith has come to tell the tale of the Death of Marriage. When did marriage die? In 1976, when the California Supreme Court ruled that non-married couples could sue each other for breach of contract, too :
Then, Michele Triola Marvin sued the movie star Lee Marvin for breach of contract. The two had lived together for several years. Michele even legally changed her last name. But there was no question that she and Lee were not married. Nor did she claim to be the putative spouse. Rather, Michele claimed Lee’s assurances of life-long support induced her to abandon her own career and devote herself to his care. The relationship now over, she wanted what had been promised.
Read the rest here . Looking for more information about this case (there doesn’t seem to be much), I did find out that there used to be a children’s television show called Marvin Marvin . It’s about “an alien teenage boy adjusting to human life.” So, I’m thinking they’re probably not related.
I did, however, discover an article in the journal of the National Council on Family Relations to check out here , if you have a JSTOR account.
