[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 38, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 38CFR3.53]

[Page 178]
 
            TITLE 38--PENSIONS, BONUSES, AND VETERANS' RELIEF
 
                CHAPTER I--DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
 
PART 3_ADJUDICATION--Table of Contents
 
     Subpart A_Pension, Compensation, and Dependency and Indemnity 
                              Compensation
 
Sec. 3.53  Continuous cohabitation.

    (a) General. The requirement that there must be continuous 
cohabitation from the date of marriage to the date of death of the 
veteran will be considered as having been met when the evidence shows 
that any separation was due to the misconduct of, or procured by, the 
veteran without the fault of the surviving spouse. Temporary separations 
which ordinarily occur, including those caused for the time being 
through fault of either party, will not break the continuity of the 
cohabitation.
    (b) Findings of fact. The statement of the surviving spouse as to 
the reason for the separation will be accepted in the absence of 
contradictory information. If the evidence establishes that the 
separation was by mutual consent and that the parties lived apart for 
purposes of convenience, health, business, or any other reason which did 
not show an intent on the part of the surviving spouse to desert the 
veteran, the continuity of the cohabitation will not be considered as 
having been broken. State laws will not control in determining questions 
of desertion; however, due weight will be given to findings of fact in 
court decisions made during the life of the veteran on issues 
subsequently involved in the application of this section.

[41 FR 18300, May 3, 1976, as amended at 59 FR 32659, June 24, 1994]