Personal Property - What is It and Who Gets It?
The issue of personal property is one that couples often spend countless hours – and thousands of dollars – arguing over. Things such as lamps, rugs, even old CDs and baseball cards, seem to have an emotional pull on couples dividing up their assets
An interesting case decided in Oregon recently concerned which spouse owned frozen embryos that had never been implanted in the wife during the course of the marriage. Both former spouses were medical professionals, the wife a pediatrician, and her ex-husband an orthodontist. He wanted to donate the embryos to couples that might want them and she wanted them destroyed. The couple’s earlier agreement on this issue prevailed, and the embryos were ultimately destroyed.
This personal property case certainly had more emotional issues than deciding who gets the living room lamp, but it does raise some interesting points. So let’s outline some of the ways to determine the ownership of personal property:
- Personal property owned by you prior to marriage is your separate property and there is no lingering legal question about it. Make sure to identify any such items to your attorney so that they may be identified as your separate property in your stipulation of settlement.
- Gifts to you during your marriage from third parties are likewise your separate property.
- Gifts to you during the marriage from your spouse is marital property and subject to equitable distribution.
- The wife’s engagement ring deserves special mention: it becomes her separate property the moment the parties get married. However, any other gifts of jewelry from one spouse to the other during the marriage is marital property.
- Property that you accumulate after the date of commencement of the divorce action (when the summons is filed) belongs to you and is not subject to distribution.
When in doubt, ask your attorney.
