Friday, October 25, 2002
New Jersey court rules in favor of unmarried woman
A story released today by KYW1060.com reports that New Jersey's top court has ruled that the estate of a married man who promised support to an unmarried woman he lived with must provide the financial compensation he promised her.
The court ruled in the case of Mary Sopko, who is now in her 70s but had lived with Arthur Roccamonte for most of the last fifty years.
Roccamonte's attorney, Joel Seltzer, disagrees with the decision:
"This means now that everyone who has a relationship [who are] not married people -- who live together in apartments, people who live together for any reason whatsoever -- it's gonna open up a floodgate of palimony lawsuits."
However, Sopko's attorney, Michael Breslin, says the decision is similar to other rulings by the New Jersey court. He says the only difference is that this claim was made against an estate rather than a living partner.
