Forbes v. Forbes

DOOLING, J.

Defendant and cross-complainant Beulah Forbes was granted an interlocutory decree of divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty. She has appealed from certain

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portions of the decree only insofar as they settled some of the property rights of the parties. For convenience of statement the respective parties will be referred to hereafter as the husband and the wife.

The husband has legal title to an apartment house referred to in the briefs as the Scott Street property. This was acquired by the husband prior to the marriage of the parties and the purchase price was partly paid by him before marriage. After the marriage the balance of the payments on the purchase price of this property were made partly from funds which were determined to be the community property of the parties and partly from an account in which community and separate funds had been commingled. The trial court decreed that the Scott Street property “is the separate property of Alexander V. Forbes, the plaintiff and cross-defendant herein. . . . Provided, however, that Alexander Y. Forbes ... is to pay to the defendant and cross-plaintiff the sum of $2209.55 as her interest in the said described real property.”

The court ruled that the value of the Scott Street property was immaterial and its value was not found.

Contrary to the rule adopted in most community property states, under which the community has only the right of reimbursement for payments made with community funds on the purchase price of property purchased by one spouse before marriage (1 de Funiak, Principles of Community Property, § 64, pp. 153-154; McKay, Community Property, 2d ed., § 535, pp. 361-362), the rule developed through the decisions in California gives to the community a pro tanto community property interest in such property in the ratio that the payments on the purchase price with community funds bear to the payments made with separate funds

(Vieux

v.

Vieux,

80 Cal.App. 222 [251 P. 640];

Maskuns