## Facts

- Before marrying Walt Wiggins in April 1963, Roynel Wiggins executed a $35,000 promissory note payable to Wilfred E. Rush.
- During the marriage, the Wigginses acquired and exchanged several parcels of real property, repeatedly taking title in both names (often as joint tenants), including tracts in Chaves County and Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- In financing certain acquisitions, both spouses executed notes and mortgages for purchase money.
- Rush obtained a judgment against Mrs. Wiggins on the premarital note and filed a transcript of judgment in New Mexico to create a lien against the New Mexico properties titled in both spouses’ names.
- Mr. Wiggins filed a declaratory judgment action seeking a determination that Rush’s judgment did not constitute a valid lien against the New Mexico properties.

## Issues

1. Whether the New Mexico real property titled in both spouses’ names was Mr. Wiggins’s separate property or community property.
2. If the property was community property, whether it was liable for Mrs. Wiggins’s antenuptial debt such that Rush’s judgment could attach as a lien.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Mexico affirmed the district court.
- The court upheld the finding that the New Mexico properties were community property.
- The court held that community property was not liable for the wife’s premarital debt under the then-applicable New Mexico statutes.
- Because the properties were community property not subject to the antenuptial obligation, Rush’s filed transcript of judgment did not create a valid lien on the New Mexico realty.

## Legal Principles

- Property acquired during marriage and held by spouses together is presumptively community property; an appellate court will not disturb a trial court’s supported findings by reweighing evidence.
- Under New Mexico law then in force, community property was not reachable to satisfy the wife’s antenuptial debts absent clear statutory authorization.
- A judgment creditor of a spouse on a premarital obligation cannot create a judgment lien against after-acquired community real property merely by recording a transcript of judgment.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed declaratory relief for the husband, holding the New Mexico lands were community property and that the wife’s premarital creditor could not impose a judgment lien on that community realty.


Wiggins v. Rush, 83 N.M. 133, 489 P.2d 641 (N.M. 1971)