Supreme Court of California

Section 377.60 of the California Code of Civil Procedure contemplates a subjective standard that focuses on the alleged putative spouse's state of mind to determine whether he or she maintained a genuine and honest belief in the validity of the marriage, and the reasonableness of the claimed belief is properly considered as part of the totality of the circumstances in determining whether the belief was genuinely and honestly held. The Court of Appeals' correctly reversed the trial court, which erroneously assumed that good faith must be tested under the reasonable person standard.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/20/2013
• Published 06/20/2013

Judges

• BAXTER

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel