Bank of California v. Connolly
Court of Appeal of California
36 Cal. App. 3d 350 (1973)
During his marriage, Mr. Latimer bought two properties using loans that the lending bank testified were issued primarily based on Mr. Latimer's and his associate Mr. Kelber's personal credit, even though one loan was partly secured by Mr. Latimer's separate Alta Loma property as collateral. The trial court found the acquired properties were community property, giving Mrs. Latimer a community-property share, and Connolly and Seward (defendants), who had agreements with Latimer regarding profit-splitting on the properties, appealed that community-property characterization.
Whether loan proceeds used to acquire property during marriage are community property when the lender relied primarily on a spouse's personal credit, even though separate property partly secured the loan.