Whatshot
Legal Talk
Legal Talk
Date: 2017-01-27
Therefore, the wife would have received the property and would also be able to claim additional assets that was accrued between them for the duration of the marriage. Double Eina!
Donations, including donations between spouses which were originally revocable by nature as a general rule are now not revocable. So if the divorce is consensual i.e. where both parties mutually agree that the marriage must be dissolved, then any donation between them will generally be regarded as being irrevocable.
However, where there is some blame or reason for the divorce which was caused by the conduct of the one spouse, which conduct must be both intentional, and of a sufficiently serious nature, for example the infidelity of such a spouse, the situation may well be very different. According to the author the donation could be revoked on the basis of ingratitude. He says an argument could then be made that the infidelity, being sufficiently serious enough to have caused an irretrievable breakdown of a marriage and by the very nature of the act could only be an intentional act, could be considered gross ingratitude. In terms of the Insolvency Act donations can be made to one's spouse provided they are married out of community of property, but it must be done well before there are any problem with creditors so that there's no risk of the donations being set aside as a voidable disposition.
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