We are going to comment on a judgment issued by the Supreme Court that touches on one of the practical aspects of any divorce in which it is necessary to liquidate the community property.
According to this sentence, shared by the Spanish Lawyers, the spouse in charge of the children will not be able to dispose of the bank accounts until the official dissolution of the community property, unless it can be evidenced that it is destined to satisfy family burdens.
Inability to withdraw money from joint accounts
In response to this criterion, the judgment sentences a woman to reimburse the company she shared with her ex-partner for the money “withdrawn and not credited, which, in the court’s opinion, constitutes an abusive exercise of the right contrary to the principle of good faith”.
Thus, the sentence states that “the amounts withdrawn in these accounts have been for the exclusive benefit or profit of the spouse and will be debtor to the same for its amount”. Thus, as the defense of the ex-husband explains, the only reasons for which the money in the joint accounts can be used are those related to ordinary expenses: housing, food, electricity or schools.
Any other purpose will be excluded from this exception, and the amounts withdrawn will be taken into account when taking judicial decisions on economic matters, especially if the amount withdrawn is high.
In this case, it amounted to 140,000 euros, which was appropriated by the ex-wife.
The judgment also recalls that the dissolution of the economic regime occurs with the final divorce judgment.
As for its liquidation, it is necessary to make an inventory of the assets and rights that compose it, as well as of the existing debts and charges, taking into account their value at the time of the dissolution.
From this analysis the distribution will be carried out.
These are some of the conclusions of the judgment:
“What cannot be claimed by [la exmujer] is that, because the dissolution of the economic regime occurred with the finality of the divorce judgment, she can retain in full the amounts of community property money that she disposed of before the dissolution of the community property, which is what resulted from the first instance judgment.”
“On the basis of the community property nature of the money disposed of by [la exmujer], in accordance with articles 1390 CC and 1397.2 CC, a credit in favor of the company for the amount of the money disposed of that had not been destined to the satisfaction of family burdens should be recognized.”
“Consequently, we must conclude that a credit against [la exmujer] should be included in the assets of the company for the amount of the money in the deposits and joint current accounts of which he unilaterally disposed after the de facto separation, which will be specified in the execution of the judgment, although the sums of 8,800 and 2,600 euros should be deducted from that amount, as it is considered that their application to the relief of family expenses has been accredited”. Specifically, these amounts deducted from the total debt were destined, on the one hand, to the payment of housing and, on the other hand, to the support of their daughters.
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