Marriage Of Heikes

10 Cal.4th 1211 (1995)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

H owned a home in Santa Barbara and a vacant lot near Boron, California, as his separate property. In January 1976, while married to W, he conveyed both parcels to wife and himself as joint tenants. The trial court found there was no oral or written agreement preserving any interest of H in the parcels other than the interests created by the deeds themselves. The dissolution was commenced in 1990. The judgment, filed December 11, 1992, classified both parcels as community property. On December 17, 1992, six days after the judgment, this court ruled in Hilke, which gave retroactive effect to the presumption, applicable on dissolution of marriage, that property acquired in joint tenancy is community property (§ 4800.1) so as to defeat Mr. Hilke's claim of a nonvested survivorship interest in real property acquired in 1969. H moved for a partial new trial in that Hilke manifested a change of this court's views of the constitutional restrictions on retroactive application of sections 4800.1 and 4800.2 previously set forth in Fabian. The trial court agreed, and the Court of Appeal affirmed the new-trial order. W petitioned for review.