Opinion ID: 1184045
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Respective Merits of the Parties.

Text: A proper determination of the respective merits of the parties in relation to their claims to the property includes the consideration of a spouse's contribution to, or assistance in the accumulation or preservation of, the separate property of the other. In Richards v. Richards, 44 Haw. 491, 512-513, 355 P.2d 188, 200, we recognized the concept that a wife may, by her efforts, as well as by her contribution of separate property, help to preserve her husband's separate property. [1] In that case, however, the court found that the wife did not adduce evidence of contribution to the husband's separate property. In the instant case, there is uncontradicted testimony that the wife aided in the accumulation and preservation of the husband's wealth. For example, the wife made her own dresses; purchased and refinished second-hand furniture to furnish their apartment in Washington, D.C.; participated significantly in a social role in aiding the husband in his employment in Washington; and devoted full time without compensation for about three and a half years at a family business distributing cosmetics, drugs and jewelry. When the business was later sold, the wife did not receive any of the proceeds as part of her separate property. She made no determined or systematic effort to accumulate property in her own name and thus to protect herself in the event of a divorce. Although profits of the business and the proceeds of its sale were spent by the husband and wife during the marriage, it still remains that the husband's separate property was thereby less burdened with living expenses during the marriage. To require a wife to present in every case evidence that she brought money or property to the marriage as a condition precedent to participating in a distribution of her husband's separate property would defeat the purpose of Sec. 324-37. There is no evidence here that the wife dissipated the husband's assets.