Q: Can a wife clean out jointly owned property if the ex-husband has been asked and refused to comply.
A:
It depends. If you are subject to a court order (via an ongoing divorce petition or separation agreement), you cannot raid jointly held accounts without court authorization. Note, payment of monthly bills from a joint account is usually ok, provided that you properly account for the withdrawals (this is still a technical violation, but if the payment is for normal expenses and it is documented a judge will not likely penalize a party in most circumstances).
If this is a matter of the ex not complying with a court order (i.e. removing money), a reasonable argument can be made that if you remove your portion and put it into another account (with documentation) you may not be violating a court order because your portion of the money in the joint account is not subject to the injunction since an agreement about the division has already occurred.
If you want specific recommendations (and a review of potential consequences), you will need to contact a family law attorney directly.
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