Also known as: marital interest · marital property interests
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
2 senses
Legally protected relational interests arising from marriage. These interests include affection, society, and consortium. Third parties who purposely interfere with them through alienation or compulsion incur liability for resulting harm.
Property rights that spouses acquire in each other's assets by virtue of marriage. These rights encompass dower, curtesy, and community property interests. They attach to estates such as fee tail and remain subject to preexisting limitations on the land.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Legally protected relational interests arising from marriage. These interests include affection, society, and consortium. Third parties who purposely interfere with them through alienation or compulsion incur liability for resulting harm.
Mariam Mansour worked irregular hours as an on-air reporter. Her supervisor Miranda Morales began an affair and repeatedly disparaged Mariam's spouse Mina Mehta as dull. Morales then assigned Mariam exclusively to overnight and out-of-town broadcasts with her. Mariam grew distant, moved to a separate bedroom, and ceased sharing daily details with Mina. Mina sued Morales for harm to her protected marital interests.
Marcus Mitchell supervised Meredith Maxwell at a manufacturing plant. After beginning a relationship with Meredith, Marcus arranged her transfer to a distant facility. The company cancelled her return travel, placed her in controlled housing, and assigned escorts that blocked contact with her spouse Madison Meyers. Madison sued Marcus and the company for harm to his protected marital interests.
3 common questions
Purpose is shown by a pattern of disparagement combined with actions that monopolize the spouse's time and opportunities for contact. Courts examine whether the defendant deliberately exploited existing strains to draw the spouse away rather than merely taking advantage of an already faltering marriage.
Supporting sources
Preexisting strain does not automatically bar recovery. Liability attaches when the defendant's purposeful conduct intensifies the alienation and causes harm to protected interests beyond what would have occurred independently.
Property rights that spouses acquire in each other's assets by virtue of marriage. These rights encompass dower, curtesy, and community property interests. They attach to estates such as fee tail and remain subject to preexisting limitations on the land.
Mosaic Retail held title to a car lot in fee tail with a remainder in a nephew and an executory interest in Meridian Motors if competing brands were sold. After the owner died, the surviving spouse claimed a marital interest in the lot. The nephew argued the spouse held nothing because the estate was a fee tail rather than fee simple. The spouse asserted a life interest measured as if the decedent had held fee simple, subject to the existing limitations.
In 1988, the Internal Revenue Service assessed $482,446 in unpaid income tax liabilities against Don Craft for his failure to file federal income tax returns for the years 1979 through 1986. At that time, Don Craft and his wife, respondent Sandra L. Craft, owned a piece of real property in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as tenants by the entirety. After notice of the federal tax lien was filed, the Crafts jointly executed a quitclaim deed purporting to transfer Don Craft's interest in the property to Sandra Craft for one dollar. When Sandra Craft later attempted to sell the property, a title search revealed the lien. The IRS agreed to release the lien to allow the sale on the condition that half of the net proceeds be held in escrow pending determination of the Government's interest. Sandra Craft then brought an action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan to quiet title to the escrowed proceeds. The District Court granted summary judgment to the Government. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the tax lien did not attach to the property under Michigan law and remanded for consideration of the Government's fraudulent conveyance claim. On remand, the District Court found that the conveyance itself was not fraudulent but that the use of nonexempt funds to pay the mortgage constituted a fraudulent act, and it awarded the IRS a share of the proceeds. The Sixth Circuit affirmed that determination on the lien issue as law of the case. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider whether Don Craft had a separate interest in the entireties property to which the federal tax lien attached.
2 common questions
The spouse receives a dower-type life estate measured as if the decedent had held fee simple. That interest remains subordinate to remainders, executory limitations, and reversions that already limited the fee tail and does not enlarge the underlying estate.
Supporting sources
Supporting sources
Employer actions such as cancelling return travel, controlling housing, and restricting movement satisfy the rule when taken at the direction of a supervisor to keep the spouse apart. Voluntary statements by the separated spouse may create a factual issue but do not automatically defeat liability if the restrictions effectively compelled separation.
Supporting sources
No. The dower interest extends to the executory limitation itself. When the condition occurs and the future interest becomes possessory, the charity or other holder takes subject to the spouse's life estate rather than free of it.
Supporting sources