Married persons to hold real and personal property as separate property
When someone gets married, the property they owned before marriage stays theirs alone. Property they get during marriage as a gift, inheritance, or bought with their own money also stays theirs alone. A spouse's debts cannot be used to take away the other spouse's separate property. A married person can sue in court on their own, without their spouse, to get back their own personal property.
451.250. Married persons to hold real and as — for what. — 1. All and any personal property, including , belonging to any man or woman at his or her marriage, or which may have come to him or her during , by gift, or , or by purchase with his or her separate money or means, or be due as the wages of his or her separate labor, or has grown out of any violation of his or her personal rights, shall, together with all income, increase and profits thereof, be and remain his or her separate property and under his or her sole control, and shall not be liable to be taken by any of law for the debts of his wife or her husband.
2. This section shall not affect the of any husband or wife to any personal property reduced to his or her possession with the express of his or her spouse; provided, that said personal property shall not be to have been by the husband or wife by his or her use, occupancy, care or protection thereof, but the same shall remain his or her separate property, unless by the terms of said assent, in writing, full shall have been given by the husband or wife to the spouse to sell, or otherwise dispose of the same for his or her own use and , but such property shall be subject to for the payments of the debts of the spouse before or during marriage, and for any debt or of his or her spouse created for for the spouse or family; and any such married man or woman may, in his or her own name and without joining his or her spouse, as a institute and maintain any , in any of the courts of this state having , for the recovery of any such personal property, including rights in action, as aforesaid, with the same force and effect as if such married man or woman was * not married; provided, any for costs in any such rendered against any such married spouse, may be satisfied out of any separate property of such married spouse subject to execution; provided, that before any such execution shall be levied upon any of a married spouse, he or she shall have been made a to the action, and all questions involved shall have been therein determined, and shall be recited in the judgment and the execution thereon.
(RSMo 1939 § 3390, A.L. 2001 H.B. 537)
Prior revisions: 1929 § 3003; 1919 § 7328; 1909 § 8309
*Word "a" appears here in original rolls.
(1954) Where husband and wife each furnished funds to purchase farm and each supplied and contributed to purchase of tools, but husband actually controlled and operated farm, wife was not entitled, after eight years, to one-half of of sale of some of the stock and tools. Herbert v. Herbert (A.), 272 S.W.2d 705.
(1955) Wife held entitled to sue husband under § 451.250 for premarital personal tort committed by him in automobile accident. Hamilton v. Fulkerson (Mo.), 285 S.W.2d 642. Comment Mo. L. Rev. Vol. XXII, p. 216 (1957).
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Legal information, not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source at revisor.mo.gov.