Second Circuit Court of Appeals - California Marital Property - Past Paper, Exams of Property Law

Download Second Circuit Court of Appeals - California Marital Property - Past Paper and more Exams Property Law in PDF only on Docsity! Page 1 of 6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA COURSE EXAMINATION SCHOOL OF LAW Fall 2005 LAW 281.2: CALIFORNIA MARITAL PROPERTY INSTRUCTOR: HERMA HILL KAY TIME ALLOWED: 22 HOURS CLOSED BOOK EXAMINATION NUMBERS: Please be sure to put your correct Fall exam number on each page of the exam (if typed) or on each blue book. COMPLETION: DO NOT CONTINUE WRITING AFTER TIME HAS BEEN CALLED. Please do NOT leave your bluebook or typed answers on the desk. Exams MUST be turned in to the person in charge. If you finish early, you must turn your exam in to the Registrar=s Office in Room 270 Simon Hall. There are no space limits. Question I. 35% CREDIT Gail and Joe were third year law students at Boalt, who graduated in May 2003. Gail ranked first in the class and served as Editor in Chief of the Law Review. She applied for, and received, a clerkship on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2003-2004 Term, followed by a clerkship with a U.S. Supreme Court Justice for the 2004-2005 Term. Joe ranked in the top twenty percent of the class. He received a clerkship on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2003-2004 Term followed by a one-year internship with a public interest law firm beginning in September 2004. Gail and Joe were engaged to be married but they decided to postpone the wedding until Gail completed her Supreme Court clerkship. Gail went to New York for her Second Circuit job, while Joe remained in California for his clerkship. Gail and Joe were married on September 1, 2005 in San Francisco. On September 15, 2005, Gail accepted an offer from a highly successful corporate law firm in Los Page 2 of 6 Angeles. Her financial package included a starting salary of $150,000 per year, payment in full of her education loans (which amounted to $30,000), and a signing bonus of $50,000 because of the U.S. Supreme Court clerkship. Joe began his internship with a Washington, D.C. public interest law firm on September 1, 2004. He received a starting salary of $60,000. Like Gail, Joe has education loans which amounted to $30,000. At the end of his internship, the public interest firm offered him a position as an associate, conditioned on his remaining in D.C. for two additional years, and thereafter transferring to the firm’s Los Angeles office as managing partner. Joe and Gail believe this is a good opportunity for Joe, and he accepted the position on September 15, 2005. Gail rented an apartment in Los Angeles. Joe shared a room in D.C. with another associate from his firm. Gail was assigned to work with Harry, a litigation partner in her firm. They spent many months together in Houston defending an antitrust suit against one of the firm’s most prominent clients. During this period Gail and Joe rarely saw each other, and kept in touch mainly by email. Gail fell in love with Harry and decided to end her marriage to Joe. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND DISCUSS YOUR ANSWERS FULLY: 1. Assume that Gail filed suit for divorce against Joe in a Los Angeles Superior Court in July, 2006, serving him personally when he was in Los Angeles attending a public interest fundraising event. She offered to surrender all her rights to his property and to pay off his remaining education loans, now amounting to $28,000, in exchange for his relinquishing all his rights to her property. (a) You are a family property specialist. You represent Joe. Advise him as to whether he should accept Gail’s offer, pointing out to him what he would be giving up if he does so. (b) You are a different family property specialist. You represent Gail. Assume that Joe declines Gail’s offer. Advise her as to what Joe is likely to get should the court order an equal division of the parties’ property. (c) You are the judge. Assume the parties do not settle. How and why will you divide the property? 2. Assume that Joe goes to Los Angeles in August, 2006 and makes an impassioned plea to Gail not to end their marriage. She agrees to give it Page 5 of 6 1) Assume that the parties have been unable to agree on a property settlement agreement and that the court must divide the community property equally between them. List each item of property and say how it should be divided, taking into account the following factors and arguments: a) W requests that she be awarded her poodle breeding business. H does not oppose this request, but insists on an in-kind division of the twelve poodles bred during the marriage. b) How and why would the court’s disposition of the family home be affected if [DO NOT DO THE MATH] i) H and W had married in 1984 and acquired the house in 1984? ii) H and W had married in 1987 and acquired the house in 1987, and H and W had entered into a written agreement preserving their separate property interests? iii) H and W had married in 2002 and acquired the house in 2002? c) H argues that the proceeds from the non-compete agreement are his separate property. Question III. 30% CREDIT Robin and Pat, a gay couple, entered into a domestic partnership in California on January 2002. They lived together in San Francisco. Robin worked as a systems engineer in Palo Alto, in the “Silicon Valley” south of San Francisco. He earned a salary of $135,000 per year, and was given stock options in the company every year. Pat is independently wealthy due to a $25 million inheritance from his father which he received in 2001, and which is managed by an investment bank. He spends his time writing novels, but he has not yet succeeded in publishing any of his work. In October 2004, while Robin was out of town on a business trip, Pat went to a political event sponsored by the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay political group. He drank too much, and ended up in bed with Alice, a straight woman who was a volunteer with the political campaign of the candidate for whom the event was held. Alice became pregnant as a result of this encounter with Pat. When Alice told Pat that he was the father of her unborn child, Pat’s immediate Page 6 of 6 reaction was to hide the entire affair from Robin. Alice was intent on marriage, since her conservative Midwestern parents would be extremely upset if she had a child out of wedlock. She refused to consider an abortion. Pat agreed to marry Alice in order to legitimate the child, on the condition that Alice would not seek any rights to his property and agree not to contest a divorce action which Pat would file after the baby was born. In exchange, Pat agreed to support the child generously during its minority. Alice agreed to these conditions. She knew nothing of Robin or Pat’s relationship with him. She only wanted to put the entire episode behind her and get on with her life. On January 1, 2005, the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act became effective. Pat and Robin, who continued to live together, had received the official notices sent by the California Secretary of State to all previously registered domestic partners warning them to opt out of their partnership unless they wanted to have the provisions of the new Act apply to them and stating that after January 1, 2005, a court action would be necessary to terminate a domestic partnership, other than as a result of a domestic partner’s death. Robin and Pat did not opt out. Pat and Alice were married in the presence of her parents and a few of her closest friends in San Francisco on February 3, 2005. The baby, Susan, was stillborn on July 5, 2005. On July 15, 2005, Pat was killed in an automobile accident while going to his lawyer’s office to institute dissolution proceedings against Alice. He died intestate. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND DISCUSS YOUR ANSWERS FULLY: 1) You are the administrator of Pat’s estate. Based only on the facts provided in this question, list the items of property that will be included in his estate. 2) You represent Alice. What will you claim are her rights, if any, to Pat’s estate? 3) You represent Robin. What will you claim are his rights, if any, to Pat’s estate? 4) You are the Probate Judge. How and why will you distribute Pat’s estate? END OF EXAMINATION