Common Law Marriage

N/A

OUTCOME: Successful

Grandson seeks to become the legal guardian of his incapacitated grandmother, who owns several real properties as Joint Tenants by the Entireties with her now deceased husband. Years prior, the grandmo ... ther created defects in title to all her real properties, when she inadvertently executed and recorded several affidavits with the County, affirming she is not currently married and never was married to her late husband. My office conducted a thorough investigation both in Miami-Dade and in South Carolina where the grandmother and her husband resided prior to relocating to Miami. Marriage Licenses were never issued in South Carolina nor in Florida, therefore they were never legally married. Nonetheless, our office maximized the grandmother’s (ward) assets, avoiding the need to open an Estate for the ward’s deceased husband when we successfully argued and proved that a common-law marriage existed between the ward and the decedent and thus preserved the properties’ original Joint Tenants by the Entireties status.