Inheritance question (income, house, friend)

[marysally]

I read a question on another state forum that made me wonder about the answer for Alabama. I have a friend who inherited a large sum of money several years ago. At the time she was not legally married to her husband although they had lived together for a number of years (so they were common law married in AL). After she inherited the money, they were legally married and they bought a bunch of stuff using her inherited money. The husband has contributed little to the household income in this period. Now they are getting divorced and my question is, Does he have a legal claim to half of the proceeds from the sale of property purchased with her inheritance?

[harry chickpea]

In short, yes. Just for fun, reverse the sexes and try to answer the same question.

[marysally]

This was not asked as a male/female question but as a question regarding the fact that AL is a separate property state. The truth of the matter is that the wife probably has no inclination in this case to contest giving her husband half of the proceeds. Unfortunately she is still that hung up on him! I only asked because it seemed unfair under the circumstances and yes, it would be equally unfair no matter the genders of the people involved.

[nalabama]

If they were common law married prior to a legally solemnized marriage, I think they were married from the time they established a common-law marriage under the common law precedents of Alabama. If there was a valid common-law marriage, then the question becomes whether or not the inheritance became commingled with other marital property. It may be unfair, but if the inheritance has lost its separate identity by the actions of the wife, then it may end up being marital property and subject to an "equitable distribution".