## Facts

- The parties married in 1943 and separated in 1974 after a long marriage.
- Husband worked as a bus driver; wife was a licensed real estate broker and operated “Belle Realty.”
- From 1962 to 1965, the parties bought and sold two properties titled in both names.
- Husband later told wife he did not want to be involved with property maintenance or the real estate business and did not want to be bothered with it.
- Wife thereafter bought and sold numerous properties titled solely in her name and did not discuss them with husband; he learned of sole title holdings after separation.
- Husband signed grant deeds to two properties at wife’s request and was aware of tax problems connected to wife’s business.
- In 1975, husband petitioned for dissolution, alleging the disputed assets were community property.
- At trial, the court rejected wife’s claimed agreement that her business proceeds were separate, but wife relied on the pre-1975 statutory presumption for married women’s acquisitions by written instrument.
- Husband testified he did not intend to gift his interest and believed the assets were “family property.”

## Issues

1. Whether, for property acquired before 1975, a wife who takes title in her own name by written instrument may invoke former Civil Code § 5110 to treat the property as her separate property even if acquired with community earnings.
2. Whether the husband produced sufficient evidence to rebut the former Civil Code § 5110 presumption and establish a community interest.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s classification of the disputed real and personal property as the wife’s separate property.
- The court held that the former Civil Code § 5110 presumption applied to wife-titled, pre-1975 acquisitions by written instrument.
- The court concluded substantial evidence supported the trial court’s finding that husband failed to rebut the presumption, including evidence consistent with a gift of any community interest.

## Legal Principles

- For property acquired before 1975, former Civil Code § 5110 created a presumption that property acquired by a married woman by an instrument in writing in her name is her separate property.
- The § 5110 presumption is rebuttable as to all except bona fide purchasers; the spouse challenging separate-property status bears the burden to rebut.
- Use of community funds to acquire property does not, by itself, defeat the § 5110 presumption when title is taken solely in the married woman’s name by written instrument.
- A spouse’s conduct (including withdrawal from involvement, acquiescence in sole title, and executing deeds) may support an inference of a gift of any community interest, sustaining separate-property characterization.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the wife’s separate-property claim because the pre-1975 married-woman title presumption applied to the written instruments placing title solely in her name, and the husband did not carry his burden to rebut that presumption despite asserting he never intended a gift.


In re Marriage of Ashodian, 96 Cal. App. 3d 43 (Ct. App. 1979)