Court Rejects Wife's Claim for Separate Property After 38-Year Marriage

An Israeli court has largely dismissed a wife's claim for separate property after a 38-year marriage, ordering her to pay 40,000 shekels in legal costs. The couple, both lawyers, married in February 1981 and divorced in August 2021 without a prenuptial agreement. The wife had sought to declare only two apartments in Ramat Gan as joint property, with all other assets, including an office in Tel Aviv, an apartment in Givatayim, and plots of land, to remain separate. Alternatively, she requested a 70% share for herself.

Judge Segalit Ofek ruled that in the absence of a prenuptial agreement, the default is resource balancing, and claims of separate property are generally invalid unless in exceptional circumstances. The burden of proof for such a claim is significant, and the court found the wife failed to meet it. Evidence showed the couple shared bank accounts, funded joint expenses, purchased property together, and raised three children, indicating a shared financial life despite separate accounts.

The court found the wife's arguments about separate property regimes during the marriage unconvincing. She claimed a "weakened, unequal" separation from 1981 to 2000, followed by a "complete and final" separation from 2000 until their separation in March 2019. The husband countered that their finances were entirely merged. The judge noted that even the wife's own witness found it difficult to define clear separation boundaries.

Several assets were scrutinized. An office in Tel Aviv was deemed joint property due to questionable loan agreements. A plot in Hod Hasharon was excluded from the wife's claim due to a lack of evidence for a trust arrangement. A plot in Hadera was also deemed joint, with the court suspecting the wife was attempting to artificially link funds to exclude it from the marital pool. The only asset excluded was an apartment in Givatayim, received through an inheritance division, as the wife did not provide sufficient evidence of its separate financing.

The court determined that all assets, rights, and debts accumulated from February 24, 1981, to March 10, 2019, are to be divided equally. The wife was also awarded 5,200 shekels per month in usage fees for the marital apartment from August 2021 to September 2022, with her share being 2,600 shekels monthly.