In re Marriage of DeShurley
California Court of Appeal
255 Cal. Rptr. 150 (1989)
- Written by Whitney Kamerzel , JD
Facts
Margaret DeShurley (plaintiff) married John DeShurley (defendant) in 1950. John worked as an airline pilot with Continental Airlines from 1951 until October 1983, when he joined a pilots’ strike. John and Margaret separated in October 1984. In 1985 a bankruptcy court ordered Continental to forgive the strike and offer John the option of returning to his job or accepting severance pay. John elected to take the severance-pay option. John and Margaret disagreed about how John’s severance pay from Continental should be characterized for property-division purposes. Margaret argued that the severance pay should be considered community property, but John argued that the severance pay was his separate property. The trial court determined that the severance pay was John’s separate property, and Margaret appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Todd, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
