Michelle Triola Marvin; filed landmark ‘palimony’ lawsuit
NEW YORK - Michelle Triola Marvin, whose landmark alimony-without-marriage lawsuit against actor Lee Marvin, her former boyfriend, helped lead to the concept of “palimony’’ settlements for unmarried partners, died Friday in Malibu at the home she shared with Dick Van Dyke. She was 76.
The cause of death was lung cancer, said a family spokesman.
Michelle Triola was a little-known actress and singer in 1964 when she began living with Marvin, the leading man whose role as a gunslinger in “Cat Ballou’’ earned him an Academy Award a year later. After the couple split in the early ’70s, Ms. Triola, who by that time had adopted Marvin’s last name, retained a lawyer and took Marvin to court, claiming that she deserved part of his $3.6 million fortune because their relationship had been based on an unwritten contract as legitimate as a marriage certificate.
Her lawyer, Marvin Mitchelson, argued that Ms. Triola Marvin had an oral agreement with Marvin that she would give up her career and devote herself to him full time, “as a companion, homemaker, housekeeper, and cook.’’ In return, Mitchelson argued, Marvin had agreed to provide all of Ms. Triola Marvin’s “financial support and needs for the rest of her life.’’
In 1979, after a sensational three-month trial that featured Hollywood celebrities testifying in support of Marvin, a judge rejected Ms. Triola Marvin’s claim that the two shared any expressed or implicit contract. But in a small victory for her, the court ruled that she was entitled to $104,000 in “rehabilitative’’ alimony, or palimony, a portmanteau of “pal’’ and “alimony.’’
The case broke ground, and the attention surrounding it prompted a flood of similar cases and brought Mitchelson a lucrative career as a divorce lawyer. The case established a precedent in California that allowed unmarried partners to sue for financial support, and courts in Connecticut, New Jersey, and many other states soon followed suit.
Ms. Triola Marvin went on to work for a public relations firm and began a relationship with Van Dyke, with whom she lived for 30 years.
Ms. Triola Marvin’s small victory was short-lived. In 1981, a California appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, overturned the judgment. Ms. Triola Marvin later said in an interview that she had not been surprised by the decision because the appeals panel was made up of two men and one woman.
“I understand that the woman tried very hard to reach the two men in her argument,’’ she said.