Facts
The divorced husband filed a request to terminate his obligation to pay alimony to his former spouse, on the grounds that she has been living in cohabitation with a third party for more than five years. The Federal Tribunal rejected this request, considering that the established facts did not allow for the conclusion that a cohabitation within the meaning of federal case law existed, in particular due to the lack of demonstration of a close and stable community of life between the former spouse and her roommate.Considerations
According to the case law of the Federal Tribunal, the alimony of the divorced former spouse must be terminated when she is living in a stable cohabitation from which she derives benefits similar to those of a marriage, so that it would be abusive to maintain the payment of the alimony. A presumption to this effect is admitted when the cohabitation has lasted for at least five years at the time of the filing of the request for modification.
However, it is then up to the former spouse who is the alimony debtor to provide full proof of the existence of such a cohabitation. It is not enough for him to merely allege that the former spouse shares her accommodation with a person of the opposite sex and gives the appearance of a community of life similar to marriage. The former spouse, on the other hand, can demonstrate that her cohabitation is not sufficiently close and stable for her to expect from her partner assistance and support comparable to that…