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H and W started living together in 1980. They lived in a house in Manhattan Beach H had acquired in a former marriage in 1973 for $43,000. In 1980, H razed the structure and built an entirely new 3,100-square-foot house in its place. H and W married on June 18, 1983. They separated in October 2000 after a 17-year marriage. They had no children. In July 2001 W filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. W worked as a commercial/residential property real estate sales agent, earning as much as $150,000 a year in commissions. W then took a corporate position at Standard Brands to handle their real estate matters. Her average salary was $75,000 a year and worked until the company was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1997. W then worked for a commercial real estate company for several months. W became depressed and stopped working entirely. W worked as a sometime retail sales clerk. H wrote screenplays. H was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1995 H acquired a real estate agent license. H earned over $590,000, less commissions to South Bay Brokers, between January 2001 and September 2004, i.e., after separation and through the trial. H and W routinely lived beyond their means. They incurred between $2,500 and $4,000 per month in credit card debt. They borrowed money from a friend, from H's father and against a pension plan H set up when he was writing screenplays. They used the house as an ATM machine. The house sold for $974,000 and netted sale proceeds of $354,000. The parties split the proceeds with approximately $159,000 going to W and H retaining the balance of approximately $194,000. H presented expert testimony that the house had a fair market value of approximately $400,000 in 1983 when H and W married. H claimed he was entitled to reimbursement of this separate property interest in the house from its sales proceeds. The court ruled that H failed to prove his reimbursement claim. H appealed.

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