[WSBARP] Community property or not?

[Lynn Clare]

No new case law that I know of.  My reading of the facts was that the
property was acquired during marriage and after they moved to WA, so
presumed community, not separate.

If the H can show that clearly traceable proceeds of separate funds were
used to purchase, then that plus title -- although title is weird as you
noted, and I would jump on that if I was the W's attorney -- might be
enough to rebut the community property presumption.  But I've lost that
argument in the absence of a pre or post nuptial agreement when the
"clearly traceable" part was not obvious enough. Damn the clients who will
hopelessly commingle their money.

Lynn



On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 11:53 AM Kary Krismer <Krismer at comcast.net> wrote:

> Title is not determinate, but I don't know of any case law that using SP
> isn't enough if title is only taken in only one name (although "John Doe, a
> married man" is sort of unusual if not ambiguous).  Source of funds is the
> typical tracing analysis.  Is there some case law relatively new that I'm
> not aware of that would convert SP into CP simply because of a transfer of
> type of property?
>
> Kary L. Krismer
> 206 723-2148
>
> On 1/26/2022 11:01 AM, Lynn Clare wrote:
>
> Doug
>
> In family law, WA favors characterization of property as community
> property unless there is clearly no question of its separate character. If
> property is acquired during marriage, except by gift or inheritance, it's
> presumed community property.  The party who wants to rebut that presumption
> must do so by clear and convincing evidence that the property was meant to
> be separate.  The name on the deed is not enough to overcome the
> presumption. Using separate funds to purchase isn't enough by itself
> either.
>
> The court's really love community property agreements that clearly
> distinguish what property is meant to remain separate, OR quit claim deeds
> from a spouse transferring title to the other as separate property.
>
> Lynn Clare
>
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