You be the Judge: Divorce Assets

If you are involved in a divorce, this may interest you.

New Jersey law provides that assets acquired during the marriage are to be equitably distributed in the divorce proceedings that terminate the marriage.  Since 1974, courts traditionally have found that the marriage ends, for purpose of equitable distribution, on the day a valid complaint is filed to obtain a divorce.

But there are exceptions.

Recently the Appellate Division reviewed a case where the plaintiff husband moved from the marital home in 1993 and filed a complaint for divorce in New York in 1994.  A judgment of divorce was entered in 1997 and the plaintiff remarried.  The defendant wife appealed, however, and the judgment was reversed and the complaint dismissed.

The plaintiff husband filed additional complaints for divorce in 2001, 2002 and 2003.  All were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

The plaintiff husband filed another complaint in 2005.  It proceeded to trial and a dual judgment of divorce was granted. 

The parties disagreed as to the date to use for the valuation of marital assets subject to equitable distribution.

YOU BE THE JUDGE:  Should the marital estate subject to equitable distribution be measured as of  the date the present action was commenced in 2005 or the date the plaintiff originally had sought a divorce in 1994?

 The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court's determination that the date of the first filing in 1994 should control.  The traditional determination that the period for equitable distribution ends when a valid complaint is filed is not automatic and inflexible.  Nor is that traditional rule to be applied mechanically when it would work an injustice.

And although the traditional rule is usually the most practical guideline, there have been exceptions.  In this case, plaintiff's first filing in 1994 resulted in the cessation of the marital relationship.  A divorce was granted and the plaintiff actually remarried.  There could be no clearer evidence that the marriage was irretrievably ended, even though the judgment was later set aside on appeal.