[WSBARP] Watanabe v. Watanabe

Tue Apr 5 10:49:30 PDT 2022

This is a question of community property and family law and that always brings a different perspective.  Frankly spouses do sign deeds to and from the community to make a loan happen or for a host of other reasons not necessarily congruent with the recitals on a deed.  The dynamic is different than in a standard arms-length transaction.  It does raise a question for me about whether this kind of inquiry would also be applied in the case of people in a committed intimate relationship.  Probably so.

From: wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of michael westseattleattorney.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 10:16 AM
To: WSBA Real Property Listserv <wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: Re: [WSBARP] Watanabe v. Watanabe

While it might not shed light on your case, an unpublished opinion out of Div II today had some discussion as to CP as well. Se attached

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________________________________
From: wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com<mailto:wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> <wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com<mailto:wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com>> on behalf of Jason Burnett <jburnett at reedlongyearlaw.com<mailto:jburnett at reedlongyearlaw.com>>
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 9:29 AM
To: WSBA Real Property Listserv <wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com<mailto:wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com>>
Subject: [WSBARP] Watanabe v. Watanabe

Mates-

I’ve yet to see a listserve discussion of the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in In re Marriage of Watanabe.  https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/1000456.pdf<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.courts.wa.gov%2Fopinions%2Fpdf%2F1000456.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Cjburnett%40reedlongyearlaw.com%7C01139fcd0e8249f33aca08da142969ef%7Cc42db07999e840ff9b106ba95e2918a6%7C0%7C0%7C637844465340914312%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=Z9z%2F6ffPxm%2F4pfJ1Qm2p1u9Ji7sR3izfALpH2drujNI%3D&reserved=0>  I’m curious to hear the analysis and opinions of my peers.

FACTS

Husband and wife seek a loan to purchase a horse property and offer Wife’s separate real property as security. The bank agreed to make the loan, but only on the condition that Wife add Husband to title of the property offered as security, since Husband had no credit history.  Wife quitclaimed her interest in her separate property to herself and Husband “to establish community property.”

The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the admission of extrinsic evidence to determine whether Wife “had the intent to gift her separate property to the community.”  According to the Supremes “the inquiry here was not whether there was a valid quitclaim deed but, rather, whether or not Pedersen had the intent to gift her separate property to the community. The extrinsic evidence was not admitted to dispute what the deed actually says, and the title was not altered here. The evidence was used solely to show Pedersen’s intent, which the trial court used to determine the nature of the property.”

It’s a unanimous opinion, so I guess it’s super-obvious to the nine justices who signed it, but it’s a mystery to me how the extrinsic evidence was admitted for any purpose other than contradicting the intent stated in the deed itself: “to establish community property.”  Between Hudesman, Borghi and Watanabe, it feels like Washington courts are pretty far down an interpretive dead-end road when it comes to interpreting the effect of deeds—how can anyone rely on a deed anymore without first contacting the signer and asking them if they intended to do what they said they intended to do in the deed itself?

Jason W. Burnett
Attorney at Law
Reed Longyear Malnati Corwin & Burnett, PLLC
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