In Louisiana, property owned by a spouse in a marriage is classified as either “separate” or “community.” This difference is important, because community property is split evenly by the spouses if they get divorced, and separate property remains the sole property of the spouse to whom it belongs.
Scott and Zoe are married. They have been married for sixteen and one half years. They are “loopers.” Loopers are a group of boating enthusiasts who, in their spare time, sail in a “loop” around the eastern part of North America. While the routes taken vary slightly, the rough course is as follows: up the eastern seaboard of the United States all the way to the mouth of the St. Lawrence river in Canada; down the St. Lawrence river and into the system of rivers and locks in the state of New York, across this system into the Great Lakes; through the city of Chicago, down the Mississippi, and out into the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida, and back to the eastern seaboard of the United States, to complete the “loop.”Most loopers use sailboats, and Scott and Zoe purchased one together about five years into their marriage. The purchase of the boat was done with funds that they had both earned over the course of the marriage up until that point. They named the boat Chuck.