Articles Posted in Divorce

In an interesting recent case, a Maryland wife opposed her husband’s request for divorce based on a 12-month separation. The basis for her opposition was that she had continued to have phone sex with the husband while they were separated. Under Section 7-103(a)(4) of the Family Law Article, a Maryland court can grant an absolute divorce to couples who were separated for 12 months if they lived separate and apart, not cohabiting for 12 months without interruption before they apply for divorce.

The couple had married in 2006 and then separated in 2010. The husband moved out because the wife had gotten a protective order against him. He filed a complaint for limited divorce, claiming voluntary separation and constructive desertion. When the protective order expired, the parties continued to maintain separate residences. Although divorce proceedings were pending, the couple started a sexual relationship. During the proceedings, the husband testified that the last time he had sex with the wife was in 2011 and after that he had not once spent the night with her.

Even so, the husband admitted he and the wife kept communicating through telephone conversations and text messages. Sometimes the conversations and text messages were explicit or sexually provocative, and the husband admitted the last time he did so was in 2012. He said the wife had come to his house unexpectedly on six occasions, but he didn’t allow her inside. The husband amended his complaint seeking absolute divorce on grounds of a 12-month separation. Continue reading

A personal injury or other lawsuit against a spouse is unusual, but possible. It is likely that An interesting and challenging 2010 case arose when a wife sued her husband of 25 years for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Both the husband and the wife were lawyers. During the marriage the husband managed the finances.

The couple had a joint checking account into which both spouses deposited their earnings. The wife stopped working to take care of their two children, but never read the bank statements. She also had an inheritance account only in her name, containing money inherited from relatives.

The wife later claimed that the husband spent huge sums from joint accounts on various investments and compact discs she couldn’t identify. The sums he spent exceeded the couple’s income. Accordingly, the husband took out loans against his 401k. He took out a home equity line of credit, ran up an overdraft of more than $10,000 and ran up debt on credit cards. He didn’t not tell his wife about these problems or why he had them. Continue reading

In a 2010 case an appellate court considered whether funds received by the ex-wife as a settlement in an employment discrimination claim were marital property. The couple was married in 1998 and had two children, ages 10 and 4 at the time of trial in this case. The ex-wife was an attorney and the ex-husband was a clerk with the IRS. The ex-wife filed for divorce on the grounds of constructive desertion. The ex-husband filed a counterclaim on the same basis. They had lived apart for 1 year beforehand. The court granted the divorce on that basis.

During the marriage, the ex-wife’s employment with her law firm was terminated as of December 31, 2002. She filed a discrimination lawsuit against the firm and its partners and employees, alleging violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act. She settled the case in 2006 and was paid $550,000. These were paid in two installments.

In a joint statement to the court in connection with the divorce proceedings, she claims she kept $300,000 from the settlement. She contended that the settlement didn’t specify which portion represented what element of damage and therefore, the settlement could not be characterized as marital property. The ex-husband argued that the settlement was marital property. The trial court found that the lawsuit was based on employer practices that had occurred during the marriage. However, it did not find that the settlement was marital property. Continue reading

Property division in Maryland divorce cases concerns not just tangible items that were used during the marriage, but also property that accrued during the marriage, such as investments and pension benefits. In a 2009 appellate case, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals considered whether an ex-husband should be required to pay his ex-wife $19,936 in pension arrears. The case arose after a husband and wife entered into a Separation Agreement that was incorporated into the Judgment of Absolute Divorce.

Under the terms of the agreement, the husband was required to pay part of his pension to the wife. The amount was calculated by multiplying 40% times a fraction. The numerator of the fraction was the number of years the parties were married during which the pension accrued and the denominator was the total number of years in which the husband had accrued the pension. The resulting figure was to be multiplied by the total amount of the pension. The divorce judgment permitted the court to keep jurisdiction for purposes of modifying the order after a Qualified Domestic Relations Order was issued.

Eleven years later, the ex-husband retired from his company at age 62. He started to receive his pension, but did not let his ex-wife know. Continue reading

Can a family law judge look at anything outside statutory guidelines to determine an alimony award? This issue was illustrated in a 2010 case. The couple in the case married in 1985 and had two kids. In 1988, the husband earned an MBA and got a job at the Federal Reserve Board. The wife completed one year of college and worked at CVS for 45-55 hours per week. Later she took an administrative assistant job, which reduced her pay by $10,000 while her husband advanced in his career, so that she could look after the kids. The couple lived a middle-class lifestyle.

In 2006, the husband moved out and filed for divorce. The wife filed a counter-complaint seeking property, child support, alimony, and more. During the divorce trial, the wife argued she needed alimony because she wasn’t self-supporting. The husband argued she could support herself.

The court issued an oral opinion that she couldn’t maintain the middle-class lifestyle unless alimony was awarded. Therefore, the judge awarded $3000 per month in alimony. Continue reading

Dissipation of marital property in Maryland occurs when one spouse uses the marital property for a benefit unrelated to the marriage while the marriage is falling apart. In a 2011 case, a couple had married in 1998 and was divorced less than 10 years later. During the divorce, the wife filed an amended complaint for divorce claiming all property issues had been resolved.

The husband answered that they hadn’t been, claiming that the wife had taken $80,000 of marital funds without his knowledge or approval while the divorce was pending and were not used for a family use purpose. He claimed some funds were wired overseas. He asked that the court order his wife to account for the funds and grant him a monetary award.

At a hearing, the husband’s lawyer called the wife to testify. The wife’s testimony conceded that she had opened two bank accounts that were only in her name. She also conceded she had made withdrawals of $80,000. She denied dissipating marital funds, testifying she had spent the money on family uses such as clothing, food, health insurance, rent, the car, her kids overseas, and the babysitter. Continue reading