Court Opinion

ID: 9846817
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:48:55.103201+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:50.507627
License: Public Domain

Hill, Presiding Justice,
concurring.
I join the Per Curiam opinion and judgment of the court. I agree that the wife was not entitled to a directed verdict as against the husband’s claim for equitable division of property. However, I have some problem visualizing facts which would authorize a jury to award, as equitable division of property, a husband $43,200 (computed at the rate of $600 per month for 6 years) for services rendered by the husband to the wife during the marriage.
I write this concurring opinion to dispel any fears raised by the use of the scare words “community property” in the specially concurring opinion. Eight states have “community property” — Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Washington. 15A AmJur2d Community Property § 1. Of these, we hear about California most often, possibly because of the well-publicized divorces of celebrities. In some community property states, upon the death of either spouse, one-half of the community property (after payment of community debts) belongs to the surviving spouse; in others, such as California, the entire community property belongs to the husband on the death of the wife, but on the death of the husband, the wife is entitled to only one-half of the community property. 15A AmJur 2d Community Property § 109. (This latter feature may have been changed.) However, “When one spouse kills the other, the value of the slayer’s interest in any community property must be determined as of the moment before the wrongful act was committed.” Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Primofiore, 80 Cal. App. 3d 920, 145 Cal. Rptr. 922, 925 (1978).
There is a vast difference between “community property” and “equitable division of property.” “In a few words, no divorce means no equitable division of property.” Segars v. Brooks, 248 Ga. 427, 428 (284 SE2d 13) (1981). In Segars, we held that the administratrix of a wife alleged to have been killed by her husband while her suit for divorce was pending could not recover equitable division of property. The result would have been the opposite in a community property state. Paraphrasing Segars: In a few words, there is no such thing as “community property” in Georgia.