Prenuptial Agreement and Immovable Property สัญญาก่อนสมรสและอสังหาริมทรัพย์

SUPREME COURT DECISION No. 6711/2537
Year: 1994 (B.E. 2537)
Relevant Code Sections: CCC, Section(s) 1465 paragraph two, 1466

SUMMARY
On the day the couple registered their marriage they recorded a note appended to the marriage register in which the husband agreed that a house and land held as his separate property, title deed 119212 with a two-storey house, would become marital property. The wife later sued to be registered as co-owner. The husband resisted, arguing that he had bought the property before the marriage so it was his separate property and the note conflicted with the law and had no effect.

The trial court ordered him to register her as co-owner of one half, with the judgment to stand in place of his declaration of intention if he did not. He appealed; the Court of Appeal affirmed; he appealed again, and the Supreme Court affirmed.

Recording the terms in the marriage register at the moment of registration is what CCC section 1466 requires: an ante-nuptial agreement is void unless it is entered in the register together with the registration, or made in writing signed by the spouses and at least two witnesses, annexed to the register and noted there at the same moment. This note satisfied that. Nothing in it was contrary to public order or good morals, so CCC section 1465 paragraph two, which voids clauses that are, left it standing, and the agreement took effect.

COURT'S HOLDING
Spouses may agree that property which is one spouse's separate property shall become marital property, and the agreement binds even though that spouse acquired the property before the marriage. Such an agreement is an ante-nuptial agreement, and CCC section 1466 makes one void unless its terms are entered in the marriage register together with the registration of the marriage, or it is made in writing signed by the spouses and at least two witnesses, annexed to the register, with a note to that effect entered at the same moment. A note appended to the register on the day of registration satisfies the first of those routes. CCC section 1465 paragraph two then voids any clause contrary to public order or the good morals of the people, so where no clause offends, the agreement stands and takes effect. Registration at the Land Office is the remedy that follows enforcement, not a formality that makes the agreement valid: the remedy is an order that the owning spouse register the other as co-owner of the agreed share, and the judgment stands in place of that spouse's declaration of intention if the order is not obeyed.

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Note: This is an English-language summary of the Thai original judgment.
For the authoritative Thai text, please refer to the Thai version above
or visit deka.supremecourt.or.th.