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an interest in the New Mexico ranch. (Hereafter, the Bard
property and its predecessors, the Windmill Ranch and the Dunlap
property, but not the New Mexico ranch, will be referred to as
the “successor properties”.) We have determined that, upon
acquisition, decedent’s interest in the New Mexico ranch was his
separate property. Under Arizona law, when one spouse uses
separate property to purchase new property, the new property
remains separate property. Nace v. Nace, 448 P.2d at 79. Thus,
unless the character of decedent’s interest in either the New
Mexico property or any of the successor properties changed to a
community interest, the Bard property was decedent’s separate
property.
Petitioner has failed to show such a change. The various
deeds and other documents set forth or discussed in our findings
of fact speak against a change. John Hughes, who represented
decedent and petitioner in certain of the transactions here
involved, testified that decedent had told him that decedent’s
interests in the New Mexico ranch and Dunlap property were
community property. On the other hand, Robert Harman, a real
estate broker who brokered the exchange of the Dunlap property
for the Bard property and the purchase of the 125-acre Bard
parcel, testified that decedent had told him that his interests
in those properties were to be his sole and separate interests.
Petitioner testified that she believed that she had a community
interest in the New Mexico ranch and the successor properties,
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