## Facts

- Shortly before marriage, the spouses jointly discussed and viewed Lot 24 and agreed it was a desirable purchase.
- Before marriage, the husband alone entered a purchase contract for Lot 24, paid $280 toward the price, and took possession.
- After marriage, the spouses paid $553.68 from community funds toward principal, interest, and taxes on Lot 24.
- During the marriage, the community’s total accumulated property was valued at $713.60.
- While married, the husband received $2,200 as a bonus for executing an oil lease on Lot 24 and applied it to the remaining purchase price.
- After applying that payment, the husband deeded Lot 24 to his parents without consideration to avoid any claim by the wife.
- In the divorce judgment, the trial court treated Lot 24 as the husband’s separate property and declared the wife had no right, title, or interest in it; the wife received $713.60 (value of community property in the husband’s possession), $150 attorney’s fees, and $50 per month alimony.
- The wife appealed only the portion of the judgment denying her any interest in Lot 24.

## Issues

1. Whether real property acquired under a pre-marital purchase contract remains entirely separate property when community funds are later used to pay principal, interest, and taxes after marriage.
2. Whether the trial court erred by adjudging the wife had no right, title, or interest in the real property despite traceable community contributions.

## Decision

- Reversed the challenged portion of the divorce judgment.
- Held the trial court erred in treating the real property as wholly the husband’s separate property and in denying the wife any interest.
- Remanded for further proceedings to account for the community’s interest in the property in dividing the marital estate.

## Legal Principles

- Property may be part separate and part community when both separate and community funds are used to acquire or pay for it.
- When community funds are traceably used after marriage to pay principal, interest, or taxes on real property initially acquired through a spouse’s separate-property origin, the community acquires an interest proportional to its contribution.
- A property division in divorce must recognize and account for the community’s proportional interest in an asset rather than extinguish it through a declaration that the other spouse has no interest.

## Conclusion

The appellate court set aside the judgment insofar as it denied the wife any interest in the real property, ruling that the community obtained a proportional interest because community funds were used to pay property-related obligations after marriage, and directed a reassessment of the marital property division on remand.


Vieux v. Vieux, 80 Cal. App. 222 (Cal. Ct. App. 1926)