The period of premarital cohabitation will have an impact on the divorce allowance.

The verdict comes from the Court of Cassation which for the first time establishes that the life spent together before the wedding must also be included in the maintenance calculation.

With sentence 35385 filed yesterday, the United Sections ruled by establishing that for the quantification of the allowance, cohabitation must also be taken into account when it has "the characteristics of stability and continuity, due to a project of common life".

Above all, "sacrifices and work or professional sacrifices made in the period preceding the marriage by the economically weaker spouse must be considered". In particular, the judges ruled on the appeal of a woman who complained about the failure to count seven years of premarital cohabitation, from 1996 to 2003, during which the couple's son was also born.

According to the Court of Appeal of Bologna, which reduced the allowance established at first instance, the woman had left her job some time before the wedding and had given up working «due to the wealth that came from her family of origin, not for having dedicated herself entirely to the care of her husband and son." Therefore that choice could not be taken into consideration because "obligations arise from marriage".

The Court therefore took into consideration the period of legal duration of the marriage, from November 2003 to 2010 and not the previous seven years during which the couple had lived together and their son was also born. The Court of Cassation has a different opinion, according to which «premarital cohabitation is a customary phenomenon that is increasingly rooted in the behavior of our society which is accompanied by an increased recognition - in statistical data and in people's perception - of de facto ties understood as family formations and social ones of equal dignity compared to matrimonial ones".

(Unioneonline/lf)

© Riproduzione riservata