Court Opinion

ID: 9609602
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:29:05.036757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:51.274637
License: Public Domain

Roe, J.
(dissenting)—Since I conclude that the majority errs in several respects in its analysis of the facts and the law, I must dissent.
The parties executed a community property agreement pursuant to statute. That statute, RCW 26.16.120, determines how such an agreement may be made and how it may be altered or amended. Its execution must be in writing and acknowledged in the same manner as deeds of real estate and "the same may at any time thereafter be altered or amended in the same manner: ..." (Italics mine.) The agreement was signed by the parties and it converted all *143property, personal and real, presently owned, to community property. It also converted all such property described as "hereafter acquired" to community property, and in addition provided that title to all community property as defined above would immediately vest in fee simple in the survivor.
Despite the language in the statute providing for the method of altering or amending the agreement, the majority states that "Mrs. Ford manifested her intent to rescind the entire agreement by making an inconsistent will; ..." The majority further states that, since there was no evidence of Mr. Ford's intention to rescind the entire agreement, the trial court properly ruled there was no mutual rescission of the entire community property agreement. But the conclusion of the majority that there was a partial rescission seems to be contrary to In re Estate of Wittman, 58 Wn.2d 841, 365 P.2d 17 (1961), where both the husband and wife had, subsequent to execution of the community property agreement, executed wills some 5 months apart. The court then, refusing to hold that such execution of wills amounted to a rescission of the community property agreement, stated that all parties must assent to its rescission and there must be a meeting of the minds. Since the parties had not mutually, which would mean a concurrent meeting of minds, assented to the rescission of the community property agreement, it was not rescinded, and the court held: "There was no oral agreement to rescind because there was no meeting of the minds." In re Estate of Wittman, supra at 845. That court further rejected the contention that the community property agreement was rescinded by the acts of one party inconsistent with its existence and similar acts by the other party. Even though the husband and wife in Wittman had executed wills and performed acts inconsistent with the existence of the agreement, there was no evidence of acquiescence, because neither of them knew the other had made an inconsistent will. In the case at bench, Neoma executed a will inconsistent with the community property agreement in 1972. Mr. Ford executed the *144quitclaim deed 3 years later. There was no showing he acquiesced in her will, which attempted to repudiate the community property agreement. He vigorously objected.
In In re Estate of Lyman, 7 Wn. App. 945, 503 P.2d 1127 (1972), aff'd, 82 Wn.2d 693, 512 P.2d 1093 (1973), after the parties had executed a community property agreement, there were separations and the wife commenced a divorce action. Later the husband executed a will bequeathing his half of the community property to his stepson. He then died. In denying the community property agreement had been rescinded, quoting Wittman, the court stated at page 949:
[A] 11 parties to the contract must assent to. its rescission and there must be a meeting of their minds.
Uncommunicated subjective mutual intention to abandon is not enough. The intention of each party, to be legally operative, must be a manifested intention.
(Citation omitted.) Since that holding indicated the mere making of an inconsistent will does not amount to a mutual abandonment, and since there is no case holding delivery of a quitclaim deed (knowledge of which was not communicated to the other spouse, and which deed was executed some 3 years after an inconsistent will) indicates an abandonment, there is no manifest mutual intention to alter or rescind.
The majority errs in holding that the inter vivos conveyance and delivery of a quitclaim deed from one spouse to another constitutes a partial revocation of the community property agreement regarding the deeded property. This is pure speculation. There is no authority cited for such a novel position. We do not know the reasons for the conveyance by the husband to the wife. It may be, since he was 10 years older than she was, her predeceasing him was a startling surprise. He may have quitclaimed the property to her thinking he was avoiding some separate creditor, or there might be a possible tax purpose. Since he was leaving the state, it may be he, as others have done, quitclaimed the property to his spouse in order to facilitate a possible sale *145and transfer of title. Many servicemen, some unwisely, quitclaimed their property to a spouse while they were absent.
Even the execution of the will by Neoma in 1972 is not inconsistent with the community property agreement; in fact, wills and such agreements are frequently executed simultaneously. The parties could die in a common disaster. The surviving spouse would certainly want a will to dispose of such spouse's property.
Hesseltine v. First Methodist Church, 23 Wn.2d 315, 161 P.2d 157 (1945), is not in point, because the deed was executed to a third person by both the husband and wife.
I certainly agree a community property contract is merely a contract. It may be revoked; it may be abandoned or altered; and it is subject to the infirmities which inhere in any purported contract. There is no showing here that the parties did not understand the meaning of the contract and there is no showing of any mutual assent to revoke it in part or in whole. Thus, I would reverse.
Reconsideration denied March 12, 1982.