California Divorce Law...

The general rule is that if separate property is used to acquire community property, the party is entitled to his or her money back, without interest.

Of course, the contributing party may give up that right, but it has to be in writing.

Besides businesses and homes, the situation of part-community / part-separate property arises most commonly in the situation of a bank account.

The key is whether the separate property can be "traced" through the bank account.

There are two ways to show that money in an account is separate property:

• Direct tracing. You must document every deposit and withdrawal as "community" or "separate" (this is usually impossible); or
• Exhaustion of community property. You can show that, assuming all the community deposits were spent first, that there is no community property left in the account.
• The same techniques are used to show that the cash used for an investment was separate property. Section 2640. Cases: Mix (1975) 122 Cal Rptr 79, 536 P.2d. 479, 14 C3d 604.

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