Marriage of Roesch
California Supreme Court
147 Cal. Rptr. 586 (1978)
William Roesch (plaintiff) and Helen Roesch (defendant) married in 1947 and lived in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for their entire marriage until separating in 1973. William then took a new job starting in California and filed for divorce there in 1974; Helen never moved to or resided in California. The trial court divided the couple's Pennsylvania tenancy-by-the-entireties property as community property, and also divided William's separately titled Pennsylvania assets as quasi-community property. Helen appealed, arguing the quasi-community-property division was inequitable.
Whether a state's quasi-community-property law should apply when one spouse to the divorce never changed domicile from a common-law state to the community-property state where the divorce was filed.