David Kagon, 90; 'palimony' lawyer

LOS ANGELES - David Kagon, the lawyer who ultimately defeated a notorious "palimony" case against his client, Oscar-winning actor Lee Marvin, after a decadelong legal battle, died Dec. 20 at his Malibu home following a short illness. He was 90.

Mr. Kagon represented Marvin at the 1979 trial in which the actor's former live-in companion, Michelle Triola Marvin, sought half of the $3.6 million the actor earned during their six-year relationship.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejected her claims, ruling that there was neither an express or implicit contract obligating the actor to share his wealth with Triola Marvin, a former singer and dancer who legally changed her last name even though she and Marvin were never married.

Under the legal principle of "equitable remedy," however, the judge awarded her $104,000 so that she could learn new job skills. Marvin Mitchelson, the celebrated divorce lawyer who pioneered the right to palimony and represented Triola Marvin, proclaimed victory on her behalf.

Mr. Kagon called the award "a magnanimous gesture by a humane and compassionate judge" but maintained that Triola Marvin did not win the case. "It would be wholly unreasonable to consider her a successful party in the Marvin case," he said in 1979.

He took the case to the State Court of Appeal, which agreed and rescinded the award in 1981.

Although Marvin, the gravelly voiced actor admired for his work in such movies as "Cat Ballou" and "Paint Your Wagon," did not have to pay palimony to his former lover, the principal of palimony remained intact. That he was portrayed in the court of public opinion as the loser was aggravating to Mr. Kagon.

"He won the case on appeal. The best gift you could give David is to get that right," said Jared Laskin, a former colleague of Mr. Kagon's at Goldman & Kagon. "She won the theoretical point but not the practical one."

After the Marvin case, Mr. Kagon switched his focus from entertainment to family law and handled several more palimony cases, although none as high- profile as Marvin v. Marvin.

Mr. Kagon was born in Woodridge, N.Y., and grew up in Lawrence, Kan.