Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: co-habitating/business

The first thing you have to understand is that merely being in a living-together arrangement does not, by itself, give you any property rights in each other's assets, businesses, income, etc. as happens when folks are married or are registered domestic partners under California's recent lagislation.

You MAY, however, have acquired some interests, rights or claims in or to each other's property based upon other legal theories, including:

(1) Partnership. A de facto partnership may result when two or more people act together in a for-profit business relationship with an understanding (written, oral or implied) that profits and losses will be shared in some way.

(2) Employment. Even if you are not sharing profits and losses so that there is no partnership, you might be an employee and therefore entitled to at least minimum wage for the time you put in.

(3) Quasi-contract. There is a legal (actually, equitable) principle allowing a plaintiff to recover the reasonable value of services provided (called "quantum meruit," which is legal Latin for "as much as he deserved") when services are rendered in the absence of a contract, but where it would be unjust to allow the defendant to be "enriched" be receiving the benefit of the services without compensating the plaintiff.

There is a fairly recent California appellate case on facts quite similar to yours, and you should make an effort to find and read it, or send me your direct e-mail or FAX info and I'll send you a copy. It is Maglica v. Maglica (1998) 66 Cal.App.4th 442.