<p>I am curious. A husband and wife invest in a company. They both know about the investment. The husband signs his wife’s name on the documents. The wife knows this. Years later, The investment goes bad. Let 's say the investment loss is $500,000. The wife files for divorce. She claims her name on the documents are forged. The husband is responsible for all of the $500,000 loss. Is this true? They live in a community property state.</p>
<p>One more question. A couple lives in a million dollar plus house in a community property state. No loans. The husband signs a quitclaim deed on the house. The wife is now the sole owner of the house. If the couple gets divorced, is the house no longer considered community property and the wife owns the house 100 percent?</p>
<p>The judge is going to have to decide; neither of those questions is black and white, and both are likely to be affected by state law beyond just “community property.”</p>
<p>In CA, the wife would have the burden of proof in showing that the husband intended to make the house separate property. [Quitclaim</a> Deed Before a Divorce | Home Guides | SF Gate](<a href=“Home and Garden”>Quitclaim Deed Before a Divorce)</p>
<p>Leaving aside the burden of proof in the bad investment issue, the money is gone, and responsibility isn’t really relevant. Are you asking whether that bad investment can be taken into account in the split, so if they had $1.5 million, which would normally be split $750k to each, that it now would be split $1 million to the wife and $500k to the husband? IMHO the community nature of the other assets wouldn’t be changed, so it would make a difference whether you were in an equitable distribution state.</p>
<p>As I understand it, CA law mandates a 50/50 split of community property. “He squandered our community property without telling me” doesn’t change that, and there’s no judicial discretion.</p>
<p>I am not a lawyer…even if the wife’s signature wasn’t on it, both of them would share profit/loss. Now, she may be able to go after him for forging her signature, but she is not going to be able not to share the loss. I also don’t believe that just because the house is in wife’s name, the H wouldn’t have any claim to it unless she could prove that the house was a gift from her family/friends to her, even then I am not sure if it would hold up in court.</p>
<p>Im not a lawyer, but if she did know about the investment, common sense says that she either signed the documents or knowingly allowed her husband to sign her name.
If she didn’t bring it up at the time, I wouldn’t think she can change her mind now. </p>
<p>I also do not think that the quit claim deed is material because in community property states, what is acquired during the marriage with exception of inheritances, is community property.
So both owe the taxes et al., even if their name isnt on the deed.</p>
<p>What difference does it make? What if the husband had only had the investment in his name, put it 1MM, and it turns out to be worth 500k at the time of a divorce? Whether she knew about it or not, it doesn’t seem to me that she can successfully claim that she gets 500k of assets (1/2 of the original investment) rather than half of what it’s worth now (250k). It seems irrelevant whether its her signature or not.</p>
<p>She should have raised the issue as soon as she learned about it.
But actually, Ive read that in community property states, one spouse * can sign * for the other, in some instances.
Debts & assets are shared if they happened while they were married.</p>
<p>Well… What is the penalty for forged signatures? The wife can sue for damages?</p>
<p>I’m not a lawyer, but I have some knowledge about this with a friend in another state . Likely similar goes on in other states.</p>
<p>This is a common issue. In america, spouses OFTEN give each other permission to sign each other’s names on documents…backs of checks, tax forms, whatever. (my mom used to joke that the bank didn’t know my dad’s real signature.)</p>
<p>If the H can show that they, as a couple, have a history of this being acceptable behavior, the wife will not likely have grounds unless she can show that the H intended something fraudulent (like signing away her rights to something or trying to hide money from her).</p>
<p>Years later, The investment goes bad</p>
<p>It would also be hard to argue that he did this to screw her out of money during a divorce. (I know you didn’t ask this)</p>
<p>Both examples are questions of fact that would be litigated at trial, if the parties can’t reach an amicable settlement. </p>
<p>A good legal “settlement” is one which recognizes the facts and the equities on both sides, and comes out somewhere in the middle. </p>
<p>I can tell you what the outcome will be if they litigate this issue through trial: most of the money that is is now in dispute will end up going to pay the lawyers.</p>
<p>Calmom is an atty I believe. If the wife were your client what would you advise her? Would you tell her that she has a case, or would you tell her that she’d have to prove/convince the court that she had no knowledge, and hadn’t given permission in regards to that investment? What if the wife told you that the H could provide many examples of him signing her name for investments that had positive outcomes?</p>
<p>One more question. A couple lives in a million dollar plus house in a community property state. No loans. The husband signs a quitclaim deed on the house. The wife is now the sole owner of the house. If the couple gets divorced, is the house no longer considered community property and the wife owns the house 100 percent?</p>
<p>The above is interesting. Imagine a married couple each own a car, and the title of one car bears the H’s name, and the title of the other car bears the W’s name. The H’s car is a Ferrari, and the W’s car is an old VW. </p>
<p>If the cars were purchased with community property money, I don’t see how in the case of divorce, the H could claim that his car isn’t community property…even if he’s the only one listed as the owner.</p>
<p>Quitclaim Deeds
Any deed you enter into effectively erases the ownership terms of the last one. For example, two spouses might hold joint title to real estate, either through a community property deed or a joint tenancy deed. If they want to change that, they can create a new deed – a quitclaim deed in which one spouse “quits” her interest in the property and gives sole ownership to the other. One problem with quitclaim deeds is that they don’t guarantee that the person quitting her interest actually has an interest to give up. For this reason, they’re most commonly used between spouses or other family members, not for the sale of real estate to an unrelated third party. A quitclaim deed can change ownership to satisfy a lender if you want to refinance your marital home in just one name, but if you end up divorcing, the deed probably will not impress the court. Judges in community property states will most likely still consider the property to be marital, owned equally by both of you, regardless of the deed.</p>
<p>Throughout our marriage, H and I have signed each other’s name, with knowledge and permission of each other. Back in the day, learned that if you sign another person’s name with their knowledge and permission, there is no forgery or fraud.</p>
<p>“I am curious. A husband and wife invest in a company. They both know about the investment. The husband signs his wife’s name on the documents. The wife knows this. Years later, The investment goes bad. Let 's say the investment loss is $500,000. The wife files for divorce. She claims her name on the documents are forged. The husband is responsible for all of the $500,000 loss. Is this true? They live in a community property state.”</p>
<p>Is the wife claiming that she had no idea about the investment? (if so, would that be believable…such as there were no mailing to home in regards to the investment or the H kept all info under lock and key away from her?)</p>
<p>Or is she claiming that she knew about the investment and she knew that he signed her name, but she’s not responsible for the loss because he “forged” her name. </p>
<p>Or is she claiming that she knew about the investment, but she had no idea that he forged her name when he investment was made?</p>
<p>Throughout our marriage, H and I have signed each other’s name, with knowledge and permission of each other. Back in the day, learned that if you sign another person’s name with their knowledge and permission, there is no forgery or fraud.</p>
<p>That’s what I was claiming earlier. I guess the issue would be…with each signing, one spouse really has no proof to show later on that he/she was given permission to do so. However, I would think that being able to show a history of this, and it being ok in those instances would be enough. And, as long as the instance in question shows no intent to be fraudulent, then the wife wouldn’t have a case.</p>
<p>Another way to look at it is this…why question this ONE transaction (the one with the big loss)? She’s not questioning the profitable ones where he signed her name. She’s not letting him have all the profits from those transactions. Why this ONE?</p>
<p>If I remember this correctly, during the McCourt (past owner of the Dodgers) divorce, Frank’s Ma. attorney altered a document after his wife signed it, which signed over her half of the team to Frank. The Ca. judge threw out the agreement because it did not accurately reflect the wife’s intentions. Not exactly the situation dstark described but somewhat close.</p>
<p>That turned out to be worth around 1/4 of a billion dollars for the wife.</p>