How Do You Divide Inheritance In An Oregon Divorce?

There have been some interesting cases surrounding divorce in Oregon in the lead up to the change in legislation. The change was brought about in response to the court of appeals decision in the case In re Marriage of Olesberg (2006). In this case, The Olesbergs had been married for 27 years when they decided to dissolve their marriage. Shortly before the separated in 2001, the husband’s mother died. The husband inherited $65,000 from his mother, which was held in a separate bank account from the marital assets.

While the court found that the wife had not contributed to the acquisition of the inheritance, as it was simply a division of the mother’s assets among her three children, the court still applied the presumption of equal contribution. It was this ruling that led to the change in the law, as the wife in this case clearly made no contribution to the inheritance, and it was kept separate from the marital assets at all times.

Another interesting case in the build up to the changes of the gifts and inheritance Laws in Oregon is In re Marriage of Gardner, (2007), where the court saw things slightly different than the Olesberg case, finding that Olesberg “involved a 25-year marriage and a corresponding length of relationship between the non-recipient spouse and the donor.”

However, the Gardner case was a little trickier. The parties were married in 1993. The wife’s mother made a gift to the wife in 1997 in the form of a $400,000 check that was made out solely to the wife. The wife deposited the check into a bank account held in her name alone. Subsequently, the wife used $371,935 of her mother’s gift to purchase house, which became the couple’s marital residence. The house also became the permanent residence of the wife’s mother, who the wife had agreed to care for. The property was titled solely in the wife’s name.

Even though the couple lived together in the house from 1998 until the marriage dissolution in 2005, the court upheld that the husband was not entitled to an equitable share of the property, as it had been purchased with the mother’s gift to the wife. The husband had contributed labor throughout the years he lived in the house, however the court deemed that this was not enough to entitle him to a full division of the house. His labor, however, did result in the house appreciating in value by $70,816, and the court ruled that the husband was entitled to half of the appreciation amount.