Odd relationships bring exciting work for lawyers

Apr 1, 2010, 7:16 GMT

Sydney - In less litigious times, when most couples married, lived mostly in one legal jurisdiction and illegitimate children were often hidden, sorting out who got what when a partner died was relatively simple.

Now, with lots of people holding more than one passport, couples skipping marriage for cohabitation and the stigma gone from illegitimate births, settling estates can be complex.

In Australia, for example, mistresses and their offspring recently won the right to share the family fortune if an unfaithful husband died without making a will specifically denying them an inheritance.

The law was also changed to recognize 'multiple spouses' as well as same-sex couplings where the deceased had more than one partner.

Just how amazingly complex things can be was evident in a recent case before the courts in Sydney following the death in 2007 of US millionaire Richard Rieser.

Reiser, who died childless and without a will, maintained homes in the United States, Australia and Indonesia and lived off and on with Australian Margaret Dion. The couple met almost 30 years ago but had not seen each other in the eight months before Rieser died alone in the US.

'They were often separated but they were also often together,' the New South Wales Supreme Court found. The court described the partnership as 'remarkable and strange,' but sided with Dion in her bid to be declared a spouse for inheritance purposes.

Rieser's siblings, who are also after the estate, argued in the court that Dion did not qualify as a de facto spouse because she didn't live with him on a permanent basis and did not have residency rights in the US.