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When Tracy Lynn Myers suspected his ex-wife of shacking up with a teenager following the couple's divorce in 2006, he asked the courts if he could stop paying her $1,200 a month in alimony.
Myers won his case when a 4th District judge ruled that his former wife, Becky Sue, had a sexual relationship and was cohabiting with her parents' teenage foster son in Provo. That relationship, the judge ruled, freed Myers from financial obligations to support her under Utah law, which allows a spouse to terminate alimony if a former spouse is in a "marriage-like" cohabitation with another person.
Becky Sue Myers, 46, denied any sexual relationship and appealed that ruling to the Utah Supreme Court, which on Friday ruled in her favor.
In a unanimous opinion, the justices agreed that even if Becky Sue Myers did have a relationship with the teen, identified as "M.H." in court documents, the relationship fell short of meeting the statutory definition of cohabitation that would alleviate Tracy Myers from his obligations.
"The two may have had a sexual relationship and they may have slept in the same house for a time. But their relationship lacked any other marker of marriage-like cohabitation," wrote Justice Thomas Lee in an opinion that affirmed a Court of Appeals ruling. "Ms. Myers lived as separate guests with distinct roles in the home of Ms. Myers' parents — Ms. Myers as an adult child sleeping on her parents' couch and M.H. as their teenage foster son living in a bedroom with other foster children. This relationship did not rise to the level of marriage-like cohabitation."
Jeffrey Callister, a Murray attorney who represented Becky Sue Myers, said the high court's ruling gives direction for future cases by clarifying the definition of cohabitation under the law.
"We cannot delineate a list of required elements of cohabitation because there is no prototype of marriage that all married couples conform to," the opinion states. "What we can do is identify general hallmarks of marriage (and thus cohabitation). Those hallmarks include a shared residence, an intimate relationship and a common household involving shared expenses and shared decisions."
The high court wrote that because cohabitation is similar to marriage, the Court of Appeals made the right decision when it evaluated Becky Sue Myers' relationship with the foster teen and deemed it didn't meet the standards of being "marriage-like."
While Callister's client achieved victory in court on the alimony issue, it's unclear whether she may be charged in the future in connection with having a sexual relationship with her parents' foster son.
Becky Sue Myers was never charged with any criminal activities in connection with the teen. Provo Police Sgt. Matt Siufanua said Friday there aren't any active criminal investigations into Becky Sue Myers' conduct with the foster teen.
Liz Sollis, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Human Services, which oversees foster placements, declined to comment on what happened to the teen and whether the family faced repercussions as a result of Myers' case.
Sollis said if allegations of sexual abuse were reported to the agency, an investigation would be carried out with law enforcement. Children would be removed if it was determined that a foster family wasn't keeping them in a safe environment, Sollis said.
Becky Sue Myers' own children submitted affidavits during their parents' divorce proceedings in 2008 alleging that M.H. bragged that she was his girlfriend.
Becky Sue Myers and the boy often flirted with each other and sometimes exhibited jealous behavior typical of a boyfriend and girlfriend, the Myers children wrote. In one instance, Becky Sue Myers drove to Salt Lake City to visit M.H. after he moved from Provo in 2007.
M.H. did not testify at trial, according to court documents.
Based on the children's testimony, the district court judge ruled that Becky Sue Myers had a sexual relationship with the boy and that the two were cohabiting.
On appeal, her attorneys successfully argued that the burden of proof was not met to show the two had sex.
Tracy Myers had argued to the high court that the Court of Appeals failed to consider that Becky Sue Myers and M.H. shared money — an element that would have bolstered a cohabitation claim. The justices rejected that theory Friday, ruling the correct legal standard was used.
Tracy Myers and his attorney, Guy Black, could not be reached for comment Friday.
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