South Carolina Code 20-3-630. Marital property; nonmarital property
(1) property acquired by either party by inheritance, devise, bequest, or gift from a party other than the spouse;
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 20-3-630
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Bequest: Property gifted by will.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Devise: To gift property by will.
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
- marital property: as used in this article means all real and personal property which has been acquired by the parties during the marriage and which is owned as of the date of filing or commencement of marital litigation as provided in § 20-3-620 regardless of how legal title is held, except the following, which constitute nonmarital property:
(1) property acquired by either party by inheritance, devise, bequest, or gift from a party other than the spouse;
(2) property acquired by either party before the marriage and property acquired after the happening of the earliest of:
(a) entry of a pendente lite order in a divorce or separate maintenance action;
(b) formal signing of a written property or marital settlement agreement; or
(c) entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support or of a permanent order approving a property or marital settlement agreement between the parties;
(3) property acquired by either party in exchange for property described in items (1) and (2) of this section;
(4) property excluded by written contract of the parties. See South Carolina Code 20-3-630 - Personal property: All property that is not real property.
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
(2) property acquired by either party before the marriage and property acquired after the happening of the earliest of:
(a) entry of a pendente lite order in a divorce or separate maintenance action;
(b) formal signing of a written property or marital settlement agreement; or
(c) entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support or of a permanent order approving a property or marital settlement agreement between the parties;
(3) property acquired by either party in exchange for property described in items (1) and (2) of this section;
(4) property excluded by written contract of the parties. "Written contract" includes any antenuptial agreement of the parties which must be considered presumptively fair and equitable so long as it was voluntarily executed with both parties separately represented by counsel and pursuant to the full financial disclosure to each other that is mandated by the rules of the family court as to income, debts, and assets;
(5) any increase in value in nonmarital property, except to the extent that the increase resulted directly or indirectly from efforts of the other spouse during marriage.
Interspousal gifts of property, including gifts of property from one spouse to the other made indirectly by way of a third party, are marital property which is subject to division.
(B) The court does not have jurisdiction or authority to apportion nonmarital property.