Section 29.9 Implied-In-Fact Contracts

• Library: Family Law Deskbook and 2014 Supp

C. (§29.9) Implied-In-Fact Contracts

There are some Missouri cases in which unmarried cohabitants did not enter into any express agreement, but they did own jointly titled real or personal property. Frequently, real property was titled in the names of the parties as tenants in common or as husband and wife without defining each party’s specific share of it. In one case, the real property was not jointly titled, but it was encumbered with a deed of trust in the parties’ joint names as husband and wife. Missouri courts have approached these property disputes in various ways. See Wendy Evans Lehmann, Annotation, Estate Created by Deed to Persons Described as Husband and Wife But Not Legally Married, 9 A.L.R.4th 1189 (1981). For information on the procedural and substantive issues in partition actions generally, see Missouri Real Estate Fundamentals: Acquisition, Title, Interests, and Conveyancing ch. 8 (MoBar 2011).

The most straightforward approach by a Missouri court to a property dispute between unmarried cohabitants can be found in Hudson v. DeLonjay, 732 S.W.2d 922 (Mo. App. E.D. 1987), in which the parties’ agreement...