In Re Marriage of Buie & Neighbors

Tatia C. Buie appeals from the family court’s judgment on reserved issues in this marital dissolution action. Buie challenges the family court’s ruling that a Porsche automobile that she purchased during the marriage with her separate property funds and gave to her then husband, Walter Neighbors, was transmuted to Neighbors’s separate property by virtue of the gift.

As we will explain, we conclude that the family court erred in classifying the Porsche as Neighbors’s separate property. Accordingly, we reverse that portion of the judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with our opinion.

I

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This appeal concerns the classification of a 2001 Porsche 996 as Neighbors’s separate property, and we accordingly limit our discussion of the factual background to that issue.

Buie and Neighbors were married in 1999. During the marriage, Neighbors purchased the Porsche using a check drawn on Buie’s bank account, which held funds derived from Buie’s sale of her separate property residence. The purchase price for the Porsche was approximately $60,000. Neighbors apparently considered the Porsche to be a gift from Buie, as it was bought…