Marriage of Marsden
California Court of Appeal
181 Cal. Rptr. 910 (1982)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
In 1962, the husband bought a house with a down payment and the proceeds of a loan, for $38,300. In 1971, the husband married the wife. At the time of the marriage, the fair market value of the house was $65,000. During the marriage, the couple made community payments to pay down the home loan. In 1978, the parties separated. In the marriage-dissolution proceeding, the trial court calculated the husband’s separate property interest by adding the husband’s down payment to the proceeds of the loan, and then subtracting the amount that the community property had paid down the loan during the marriage. The court then took that amount and divided it by the purchase price to get the husband’s separate-property percentage. The husband appealed, arguing that he should get credit for the property’s appreciation in value after his purchase but before the marriage. The husband claimed that his separate property interest percentage should be based on the fair market value of the house at the time of the marriage, rather than his purchase price for the house.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Barry-Deal, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 807,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 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.