Is my signed quit claim valid?

I live in SC.

In 2009 my husband and I signed a quit claim deed that transferred the ownership of a piece of land from both our names to my business, a licensed LLC in SC. He is not a member of the LLC. (I don't know if this matters, but the land was purchased with money from me, about 2 months after our marriage). We are now in the very beginning stages of a divorce and I will be seeing a lawyer very soon. He claims now that I tricked/coerced him into doing this to get his name off the deed. The QC was signed, witnessed and notorized, filed with the appropriate government office and my business now pays taxes on the land. This seems to me to be a valid legal document. ANy opinions? TIA for any responses.

My comments below are just that and are not to be taken as legal advice. Rely solely on your South Carolina family law attorney. However, I don’t think you are concentrating on the key legal issues here.

Forget the worry over your husband’s squawking about his signing the quitclaim. I’m sure your attorney will assure you that he has no legal grounds to rescind his deed or that the land is now fully vested in the LLC.

More critical here are the twists and turns involving the land and the LLC and the related questions presented that possibly involve the transmutation of non-marital property into marital property (and vise versa), and inter spousal gifts.

You write that you purchased the land with your money shortly after the marriage. I assume then that the purchase money was not marital property. But if the title was taken in both your names – which seems to be the case where you write that it was deeded out of “both our names” – there may be a question of you having gifted it to the community of husband and wife and thus transmuting it from non-marital to marital property.

Then we don’t now the character of the LLC either. Is it is marital or non-marital? (Understand that the fact that he is not a member of the LLC is not necessarily determinative of its character.)

If the LLC should be determined to be your separate holding apart from marital, then perhaps the quitclaim from your husband could be considered a gift of his marital interest to your separate non-marital property.

But if the LLC is found to be marital, then your husband simply converted his marital property interest in the land to another form of ownership.

Whatever, since South Carolina is an “equitable (as opposed to an equal) distribution state”, it would seem that if you paid for the land with your separately owned funds, it would/should be taken into account by the divorce court in favoring you with a disproportionate distribution.

Again, these are just some thoughts. You just hire a “good” divorce lawyer. Because they ain’t all good, believe me. And this is not an uncomplicated divorce situation. Not property wise.

Good luck