Richard Sheeley received a favorable Memorandum of Decision in a divorce matter for his client, the Wife (Defendant).
The Wife and Husband (Plaintiff) were in a short duration 4-year marriage where each party alleged the other engaged in conduct that caused the breakdown of the marriage.
The Husband owned premarital assets including their shared primary residence. Wife made no financial contributions to the property. That home was destroyed by fire soon after the marriage began which resulted in more than $1M in insurance proceeds. The Husband alleged the Wife made little to no contribution to the assets of the marriage (including the destroyed home).
However, upon Sheeley’s cross-examination of the Husband, Husband admitted that the insurance proceeds were a “windfall” considering the fair market value of the property at the time the parties married versus the value at the time of the fire. It was also admitted that the proposed division for the Court’s consideration at trial would result in another windfall in the Husband’s favor if the Court agreed with Husband’s position. That division would have allowed the Husband to retain 96% of the marital estate and provide the Wife with merely 4%.
While an uneven division of assets was expected due to the amount of premarital assets of the Husband, the short marriage, and the inability to show Wife contributed substantially to the value of the assets of the marriage, Sheeley argued this was overreaching by the Husband and his counsel.
The Wife’s admission on cross-examination that she preferred to only work part-time and that she did not pursue full-time employment even after separation of the parties were also taken into consideration with other statutory factors. Despite this potential hurdle to an award of alimony, the Court found her testimony otherwise compelling.
In the Court’s decision, the Wife was awarded one of the income-producing houses, both mortgage and lien free, among other assets. The pre-judgment alimony was also maintained for a post-judgment term of three (3) years – an extraordinary result in the context of a four (4) year marriage – further demonstrating Halloran Sage’s commitment to delivering strong advocacy and results for our clients.