Succession of Ferrand

346 So. 2d 280, 1977 La. App. LEXIS 3693

Opinion

REDMANN, Judge.

Because there is testimony from two neighbors that decedent and his legatee were living together in a sexual relationship a year before his last illness and from a number of witnesses that the legatee sought to defeat an eviction proceeding by testifying that she was the “common-law wife” of decedent, the trial judge’s conclusion of open concubinage is supported by the record and we cannot substitute our judgment for his; Canter v. Koehring, La. 1973, 283 So.2d 716.

The fact that the legatee maintained her apartment in a public housing project (using it also for some of her work as a cosmetician) cannot of itself defeat the concubinage’s openness. A simple conflict of evidence does not prevent a conclusion of open concubinage by the trial judge; Succession of Battiste, La.App. 4 Cir. 1962, 145 So.2d 668, cert. denied.

Affirmed.