'Palimony' Figure Michelle Triola Marvin Dies...

Michelle=
Triola Marvin whose landmark lawsuit against her former
lover, "Dirty=
Dozen" actor Lee Marvin, placed the word "palimony"
into the family=
law lexicon and changed the legal rights of
unmarried cohabiting=
partners, died Friday at age 76.

She underwent surgery for lung=
cancer last year and died at the
Malibu home of actor Dick Van Dyke,=
her partner of 30 years, said
family spokesman Bob Palmer.
=

Michelle Marvin's birth name was Triola and she met Lee Marvin while=

working as an extra in his 1964 movie "Ship of Fools." They lived=

together for six years and she took his last name but never married.=

The relationship ended in 1970.

At first she accepted=
payments from him of $833 a month to support
her while she tried=
to resume her singing and acting career. But
after support checks=
stopped she filed suit for half of everything
Marvin had earned during=
their years together. Her share would have
been $1.8 million. Her=
cause was taken up by one of Hollywood's
most colorful divorce lawyers,=
Marvin Mitchelson, who launched what
was a campaign to change the=
law.

The case of Marvin vs. Marvin focused a spotlight on the=
then radical
arrangement of cohabiting unmarried couples and the=
plight of women
after such relationships ended. At first, the suit=
was rejected by
the courts as having no basis in law. But Mitchelson=
took her case to
the California Supreme Court where in 1976 she won=
the right to
bring suit.

He would later say that the day=
she won the right to walk into court
and file suit was the day American=
marriage and family law changed
forever. Mitchelson, known for his=
pursuit of multimillion-dollar
divorce cases, sought to win the same=
rights for Marvin as she would
have under alimony laws if the couple=
had married. He coined the term,
"palimony" and it stuck.

=

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