IICLE Family Law Flash Points - March 2024

Finding of Cohabitation Denied Upon Motion for Directed Finding

The husband filed a petition to terminate maintenance on the grounds that the wife was engaged in a continuing, conjugal relationship postjudgment in In re Marriage of Larsen, 2023 IL App (1st) 230212. At the close of the husband's case-in-chief, the wife orally moved for a motion for a directed finding on the grounds that the husband had failed to meet his burden of proof. The evidence presented to the trial court was lengthy over a four-day hearing and included testimony by the parties, the wife's boyfriend, and a couple of private investigators. The trial court granted the motion for directed finding, and the husband appealed. The appellate court issued a lengthy opinion affirming the trial court in which it noted that while the Herrin factors (see In re Marriage of Herrin, 262 Ill.App.3d 573, 634 N.E.2d 1168, 199 Ill.Dec. 814 (4th Dist. 1994)) are the most relied on list of factors under which to