I know nothing about law (or economics) and have recently tried to understand (personal curiosity, not a homework) the basic laws concerning the separation of goods in case of divorce.
Scenario
Alice and Bob got married. Bob had absolutely no private property before the wedding and Alice has a private property of
P
dollars from her parents before the marriage.During the first 15 years of their marriage, Bob and Alice worked hard and in between both of their income (and eventually the income from Alice's private properties), they manage to spare some money. With it this money, they bought together (under both of their names) an apartment for
y
dollars.After buying this apartment Alice and Bob felt like they have enough goods and money to stop producing wealth. They diminish their income and increase their expenditure. In 5 years, they consumed the extra money they managed to spare together plus a ratio
r
of the private propertyP
. As a consequence, at the term of these 5 years, Alice and Bob only have(1-r)P
dollars and an apartment worthy
dollars (assuming no loss/increase of value through time) left.
Question
Bob and Alice decide together to divorce!
- Who gets what?
- Does the answer to this first question depends on whether Bob and Alice's acquests were equal or higher than the value of the appartment (
y
) or not?
Simplifying assumptions
We will assume for simplicity that y > rP
so that y + (1-r)P > P
. In words, in between the appartment and what is left from Alice's private properties exceeds Alice's private properties before the wedding. We will also assume Alice and Bob are both residents of Canada!
My thoughts
I can think of two ways things may go.
First possibility
Alice must receive the private properties she had before the marriage plus half the acquests.
- Alice gets
P + (y-rP)/2
- Bob gets
(y-rP)/2
Second possibility
Alice gets back whatever is left from her private properties plus half of the appartment.
- Alice gets
(1-r)P + y/2
- Bob gets
y/2