Question 1

Mr and Mrs Brown entered into a civil marriage without an antenuptial contract. At the
time of entering into the marriage Mrs Brown was unaware of the fact that Mr Brown
was already a party to another civil marriage in community of property. Mrs Brown
found out about the other civil marriage after the death of Mr Brown.
a) What type of marriage is Mr and Mrs Brown’s marriage?
(1)

b) Mrs Brown approaches you for advice. As her attorney, advise her what the
patrimonial consequences of her marriage are. In your advice, you must
discuss the conflicting case law on the issue.
(9)
[10]

Question 2

Mr and Mrs Mopeli were married out of community of property with application of the
accrual system in 2015. Mr Mopeli is a surgeon in a private medical practice. Mrs
Mopeli is a lawyer, but she left her legal practice when she married Mr Mopeli and has,
ever since, maintained the household and looked after the spouses’ children. Mr
Mopeli works long hours. To pass the time between procedures he has started
gambling online and has developed a gambling addiction. To hide his gambling from
Mrs Mopeli, Mr Mopeli has incurred large gambling debts. He has started selling his
assets without consulting Mrs Mopeli to pay for his gambling debts. Mrs Mopeli has no
assets of her own.

When Mrs Mopeli discovers that assets are disappearing from the matrimonial home
she confronts Mr Mopeli. Mr Mopeli tells Mrs Mopeli that it is none of her business
what he does with his own assets.

Advise Mrs Mopeli whether Mr Mopeli is correct and that there is nothing she can do
to prevent him from selling his own assets, as alleged by Mr Mopeli, or whether there
are any statutory steps she can take to protect her interests. Fully explain and
substantiate your answer.

NB: When doing the assignment remember that your answer will be evaluated
according to the following assessment criteria: [10]

Very important: Your answer to the question will be evaluated according to the
following marking rubric:

Evaluation criteria Not yet Partially Achieved

achieved achieved
1. Identify the problem. 0 0.5 1
2. Discussing the relevant 0 1-6 7
law applicable to the
problem referring to

Open Rubric
 authority, acknowledging
sources and avoiding
plagiarism
3. Applying the law to the 0 0.5 1
facts of the problem
4. Language, use of 0 0.5 1
tenses/syntax and
formulation