Tweeten v. Tweeten, 2009 ND 164

Summary

The Supreme Court of North Dakota reviewed a divorce judgment dividing the parties' property and addressing the effect of their premarital agreement. The court held that the parties' transfer of separately identified properties into joint tenancy destroyed their separate ownership and made the premarital agreement inapplicable to those properties. It reversed the judgment and remanded for an equitable distribution of the marital estate, including both properties, under the Ruff-Fischer guidelines.

Holdings

1. By transferring the L Ranch and Tweeten properties to themselves as joint tenants with a right of survivorship, the parties destroyed their separate ownership of the properties and made the premarital agreement inapplicable to them.
2. Both the L Ranch property and the Tweeten property had to be included in the marital estate and considered in an equitable distribution under the Ruff-Fischer guidelines.
3. The district court's property division was clearly erroneous because it applied the premarital agreement to the L Ranch property and failed to include both properties in a legally correct equitable distribution.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the parties' 1991 transfer of the L Ranch and Tweeten properties into joint tenancy made the premarital agreement inapplicable to those properties.
2. Whether both properties had to be included in the marital estate and equitably distributed under the Ruff-Fischer guidelines.
3. Whether the district court's property division was clearly erroneous.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded