Estate of Raphael
Court of Appeal of California
206 P.2d 391 (1949)
Bertha (defendant) testified she and her husband Raymond specifically agreed to be equal financial partners regarding all property each separately owned or acquired during their marriage, and she filed years of tax returns claiming half of their marital earnings as her own income consistent with that agreement; after Raymond's death, his brother Harry (plaintiff), as estate administrator, sought partial distribution of Raymond's estate as though it remained his separate property, and the trial court found Bertha and Raymond had entered and fully executed an oral transmutation agreement.
Whether an executed oral agreement between spouses for the transmutation of property from separate property to community property is valid.