Escapees July-August 2022

Voting and Domicile for full-time RVers It’s Time to Vote Again By K. SUSIE ADAMS #134068

On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I met a couple that I will call Bill and Dawn. We spent a day together hiking and birdwatching. At the beginning of this hiking tour, as we boarded the tour bus, we had all been asked to tell our names and from where we had come. There were only 10 of us in the group, four of which included my husband, my son and his wife and myself.

“I’m Susie, from Texas,” I announced when it was my turn to shout out my credentials. Bill and Dawn introduced themselves and then said they were from California. After hiking and sightseeing all day, we stopped at this family-owned restaurant for a late lunch. My husband and I sat at one end of the long table watching birds. My son and his wife sat at the other end, across from Bill and Dawn. We hardly sat down before my son exclaimed, “Mom, Bill and Dawn are Escapees!” I must admit, the four other guests, sitting between us, turned to look suspi ciously at Bill and Dawn, and then at me, just as Bill exclaimed, “Wait, you are THE Susie Adams?” For the rest of our time together, Bill wanted to ask me a number of domicile questions. His poor wife, Dawn, kept trying to drag him away, but he had a lot of domi cile questions and opinions he wanted to share with me. He also let me know that he has read the articles I write and has had a lot of questions over the many years he has been an Escapee.

So, I then asked the rather obvious, but uncomfortable, “legal” question, “Bill, where do you call home?” Without a pause, he said, “Livingston, Texas!” “OK,” I responded, “then why did you tell everyone you’re from California?” He nudged my arm with his elbow, winked, smiled and was then led away from me by Dawn. Where you Intend to Call Home Domicile, as I have written time and again, is “where you intend to call home.” The problem with this legal de fi nition is the word “intent.” As lawyers, proving “intent” is certainly not an easy task. Usually to prove intent, we must show a person’s actions, as “actions speak louder than words.” Now for Bill, I wanted to lecture him on these actions. Even though he was only with nine other people on a bus in Costa Rica, calling California “home” undermines his claim that Texas is his home. Laws A ff ecting Domicile Lately, states have also created new laws that affect domicile. Many of those laws

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ESCAPEES Magazine July/August 2022