When spouses or domestic partners are living separate and apart, their respective earnings and accumulations shall be the separate property of each. The earnings and accumulations of minor children shall be the separate property of the spouse or domestic partner who has their custody or, if no custody award has been made, then the separate property of the spouse or domestic partner with whom said children are living.
RCW 26.16.140
Earnings and accumulations of spouses or domestic partners living apart, minor children.
Applied in 48 court decisions — leading case 125 Wash. 2d 865 - In Re the Marriage of Short (1995)
Most recently applied in 3 Wash. 3d 579 - In re Marriage of Porter (August 2024)
2008 c 6 s 613; 1972 ex.s. c 108 s 5; Code 1881 s 2413; RRS s 6896.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.