Court of Appeals of North Carolina June 15, 1999, COA97-1583 (Patterson v. Strickland)

LEWIS, Judge.

Plaintiff and defendant met in 1962 and began an intimate relationship in 1963, although plaintiff was married to another man until 1969. In 1975, defendant moved into plaintiff’s mobile home with her, and in the spring of 1976 the couple moved into a house on 4.4 acres of land on Arrowood Road in Charlotte (“the Arrowood property”).