DIVORCE 57: Court determined 10% interest gifted by father was marital property.
In July 1999, plaintiff’s father gifted to plaintiff a 10% interest in Business. Shortly thereafter, in August 1999, plaintiff and defendant were married. Throughout the marriage, plaintiff and defendant maintained separate bank accounts. When...
DIVORCE 56: The court held that the plaintiff ex-husband failed to show how the arbitration was void or without authority.
Plaintiff appeals as of right the trial court’s March 6, 2019 judgment of divorce. The judgment of divorce, among other things, incorporated the awards pertaining to spousal support, property division, and costs and fees that had been...
DIVORCE 54: The trial court abused its discretion in denying Defendant’s request for attorney fees without conducting a hearing or allowing her to support her request.
This case arises from the dissolution of plaintiff and defendant’s marriage. Defendant was a stay-at-home parent for the parties’ two children during the majority of the marriage. The children were adults at the time of the separation...
DIVORCE 53: Although the court affirmed the trial court’s decisions to deny defendant’s motions to set aside the default and the default JOD, it vacated the portions of the default JOD as to the distribution of marital property, custody, parenting t
Plaintiff filed for divorce. Defendant filed an answer and a counterclaim for divorce. Plaintiff and defendant were both ordered to appear at the settlement conference. After defendant failed to appear, the trial court entered a default. Soon...
DIVORCE 52: The court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by awarding defendant ex-wife attorney fees.
Plaintiff and defendant divorced after a 36-year marriage. The divorce trial took place on October 1, 2014, and the court made a dispositional ruling from the bench on October 30, 2014. In the original dispositional ruling, the court erroneously...
DIVORCE 51: Holding that the trial court erred by denying plaintiff-ex-wife’s requested calculation of interest payments, the court vacated the ruling and remanded the case.
The Plaintiff and defendant were married in October 1994. Plaintiff filed for divorce on February 4, 2004, and the trial court entered a consent judgment of divorce on January 5, 2005. The judgment referenced a property settlement agreement, under...
DIVORCE 48: The trial court may only determine whether the parties’ agreement to arbitrate is ambiguous, not whether the arbitrator’s interpretation of the contract was correct.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Plaintiff filed for divorce in 2013, and following mediation, the parties reached a transcribed mediation agreement in June 2014. The mediator read an outline of a property settlement agreement, the terms of which were to be...
DIVORCE 47: A CIRCUIT COURT HAS JURISDICTION OVER DIVORCE MATTERS AND HAS ALL EQUITABLE POWERS AVAILABLE TO IT TO EFFECTUATE ITS ORDERS
BACKGROUND
The parties married in 1978, and they have three adult children. Plaintiff filed for divorce in September 2018, by which time both parties had reached retirement age. The property issues in dispute should have been relatively...
DIVORCE 44: A POST-NUPTIAL AGREEMENT WAS NOT CONTRARY TO PUBLIC POLICY WHEN IT WAS MOSTLY NEGOTIATED PRIOR TO THE MARRIAGE AND WAS NOT CREATED IN CONTEMPLATION OF A FUTURE DIVORCE
BACKGROUND
The parties met and began cohabitating in 2003. In 2011, plaintiff and defendant began discussing marriage. The parties had lived together for years, but each had their own separate businesses and assets. Thus,...