The Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center held its
final Lunch-n-Learn program for the fall semester on Tuesday, December
1st. For this program, the center
invited opposing counsel, Angelika Kuehn and Reuben Bernick, from the potentially
ground-breaking case Blumenthal v. Brewer
to discuss their differing views and approach to the case. Professor Roberta Kwall’s family law class
attended the presentation and Professor Kwall introduced the attorneys to start
the program.
In Blumenthal v. Brewer, a property owner sought
to partition property she owned with her former domestic partner and the former
partner brought a counterclaim seeking imposition of a constructive trust over
the property or a partition adjusting for her sole financial liability of the
property. The case raised the issue
whether, under Illinois law, a property owner could bring common law claims
against her former same-sex domestic partner in relation to real property they
owned together. The attorneys explained
the case’s procedural history to the students, noting that that former
partner’s counterclaim was dismissed in the trial court but upheld by the
Illinois Appellate Court. They also
explained their differing views on the case. Attorney Kuehn, who represents the appellant, argued that Illinois public
policy in relation to unmarried couples has shifted, implicitly overruling
Illinois’s categorical restriction on claims by unmarried partners. Thus, Illinois courts can depart from this precedent
and recognize property rights between unmarried cohabitants. Attorney Bernick disagreed with that
perspective and argued that Illinois law has remained unchanged in respect to
common law marriage and does not recognize it. As such, Illinois precedent squarely precludes enforcing property rights
between former cohabitants because doing so would grant them the benefits of a
legal marriage. Therefore appellant’s
counterclaim in respect to the property must be denied.
The discussion was interesting and insightful and allowed the
students to hear differing perspectives and counterarguments on an important
and potentially precedent-setting area of family law—specifically relating to
cohabitation and the division of property. The case is now on appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court and a decision
is expected at some point after the holidays.