California Community Property
Under California law, property acquired during a marriage is generally considered community property, which generally gets divided on a 50-50 basis. However, the parties can agree otherwise in writing, signed by both parties, that certain piece of property or assets are to be the sole property of the other and not considered community property.
For example, Frank McCourt and Jamie McCourt, the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers have filed for divorce. Each claim ownership rights to the team. However, Frank McCourt has an agreement, which was signed by him and his wife, stating that “all assets of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team” is his sole property.
The agreement provided that Frank McCourt would be sole owner of the Dodgers and other business interests and Jamie McCourt would be sole owner of eight residences, jewelry, artwork, cars and boats.
In court papers, Frank McCourt said he signed the agreement “to honor the request of my wife” and to ensure the residences would remain out of reach of any creditors.
For Jamie McCourt to persuade the court to override that agreement, she would have to show she was unaware of what she was signing, was unaware of what the effect would be and did not sign voluntarily. That is going to be hard to show because she has a law degree from the University of Maryland, her master’s in business adminstration from MIT and her experience practicing family law.
So not only can you agree to circumvent community property law in California but, you must also better think wisely about what you are agreeing to because later on in time, those agreements can come back to haunt you when you go through divorce. Decision to protect yourself as a couple can be your worse nightmare when it comes time to disolve your marriage. The McCourt divorce proceeding is a prime example if you are looking at it from Jamie McCourts’s eyes.
