JACQUELINE K. BURNHAM, APPELLANT,
v.
ROBERT L. BURNHAM, APPELLEE
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In this divorce case, the court addresses whether property titled solely in the wife's name during the marriage constitutes gifts or marital property subject to equitable division. The wife appeals the trial court's award of special equity to the husband in a brooch and bonds, while the husband appeals the denial of special equity in the marital home.
The trial court's judgment awarding the husband special equity in the brooch and bonds was reversed. The trial court's judgment denying the husband special equity in the marital home was affirmed. The husband failed to overcome the presumption of a gift by conclusive evidence in all three instances.
[1] A presumption of a gift from husband to wife arises when property is titled in the wife's name.
[2] The burden is on the party seeking to overcome the presumption of a gift to present conclusive evidence.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the burden was upon the husband to overcome the presumption of a gift by conclusive evidence”
States the applicable legal standard that places the burden on the husband to prove by conclusive evidence that property titled in the wife's name was not a gift
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe husband and wife married in 1959 and separated at the end of 1972. During the marriage, the husband gave the wife a brooch 13-14 years before sepa…
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DAUKSCH, Judge.
This is an appeal from a Final Judgment in a dissolution case. The parties were married to each other in 1959 and lived together as husband and wife until the end of 1972. During the marriage the husband gave a brooch to the wife and caused to be titled in her name an out-of-state warehouse. The marital home of the parties was in the wife’s name solely as' well. The trial court awarded the husband a special equity in the brooch and some Puerto Rican bonds which the wife purchased from the proceeds of the sale of the foreign warehouse. The trial court refused to award to the husband a special equity in the former marital home. The wife appealed the Judgment awarding the special equity to the husband in the brooch and the bonds. The husband appealed the Judgment denying him a special equity in the proceeds of the marital home. We find merit in the wife’s contention and cannot find merit in the contention of the husband. Therefore we affirm in part and reverse in part.
As to the emerald brooch the husband said that he gave the jewelry to his wife with the understanding that it was not to be worn but secreted and kept until it appreciated in value. He said it w;as an investment made by him and not a gift to her. This brooch was purchased some 13 or 14 years prior to the separation of the parties and was worn by the wife as any other piece of jewelry a lady wears and there is insufficient evidence in the record to overcome the presumption that this brooch was a gift from the husband to the wife.
When the husband and his partner purchased a warehouse in Connecticut they put the title to the warehouse in the names of their respective wives. The Appellee says he put it in the Appellant’s name to make it more convenient to him in case his prior wife or some creditor might want to attach his property. While we do not find that the husband had the property placed in his wife’s name in order to defraud creditors we do find that again the evidence is insufficient on the part of the husband to overcome the presumption of a gift from the husband to the wife. This is further strengthened by the evidence that the husband made no claim against the proceeds of the sale of the warehouse or the municipal bonds which were purchased from those proceeds until this dissolution action was begun. The sale was in 1971 and the Petition for Dissolution was filed in 1974.
The rule which was applicable at the time this matter was tried was that the burden was upon the husband to overcome the presumption of a gift by conclusive evidence. Schoenrock v. Schoenrock, 202 So. 2d 571 (Fla.2d DCA 1967).
As we said above the husband cross-appealed for a special equity in the wife’s interest in the marital home. The evidence indicates that the house was originally in joint names then placed in the wife’s name only because the husband wanted to avoid the consequences of the Connecticut attachment law'and for estate planning purposes. The husband again failed to overcome the presumption that he made a gift to the wife when he titled the home in her name. Therefore that Judgment of the trial court must be affirmed just as surely as Judgment in regard to the brooch and bonds must be reversed. The ruling in Ball v. Ball, 335 So. 2d 5 (Fla.1976) is not applicable here because the petition was filed prior to that decision.
REVERSED IN PART, AFFIRMED IN PART.
DOWNEY, J., and SCHWARTZ, ALAN R., Associate Judge, concur.
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Winner v. Winner, 370 So. 2d 845 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)…5 (Fla.1976), or those of its progeny which involve personalty, e. g. Merrill v. Merrill, 357 So. 2d 792 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), which in any way affects this rule. The absence of evidence of any species of a valid delivery, compare Burnham v. Burnham, 343 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), therefore requires reversal of that portion of the final judgment which orders that the husband transfer either the diamonds or their money value to the wife. In view of the evidence concerning the contributions of the wife to…
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Ruiz v. Rosanna Ruiz, 548 So. 2d 699 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)…s error for the trial court to characterize $215,000 in jewelry purchased with marital assets as “gifts to the wife and therefore not subject to division.” We agree. The jewelry here under dispute was not a single item such as in Burnham v. Burnham, 343 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), nor an item coming from a source outside the marriage as in Sihler v. Sihler, 376 So. 2d 941 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979). Rather, the Ruiz jewelry represents an asset accumulated as a result of a course of conduct whereby twenty per cent…
Authorities Cited
- Shannon v. State, 335 So. 2d 5 (Fla. 1976)
- Schoenrock v. Alvina N. Schoenrock, 202 So. 2d 571 (Fla. 2d DCA 1967)