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50 Years And No Longer Holding II

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Published: 22Oct2009
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One of my recent cases involved a couple who had been married for fifty years. It was another situation where the husband thought the children and his wife were against him. The difference between this case, and the one I talked about in Part I, was that these folks had a lot of money.

"Yes, you'll have to share it with her," I advised Dick as he sat across my desk from me. "She has lived with you for 50 years, and anything you accumulated during that time is marital property."

"She never worked," he said. "I had a job during our whole marriage until I retired."

"It doesn't matter." I assured him. "She kept your house and stayed home with your kids. That's what you and she agreed to, and she will be awarded half of the property."

""But I'm afraid she'll spend it all," he whined. "She'll give it away to the kids."

"It's hers to do with whatever she wants," I reminded him. "Besides, was she loose with money when you lived with her?"

"No, but I didn't give her more then enough to run the household."

"Well, unless you can show that you contributed more then she did to acquiring the property, and based on what you've said, you can't, she'll get half and she can do what she wants with it."

"I did contribute more," he brightened. "I had a new DeSota when we married, and I bought all of our furniture for our first apartment!"

There are times when a poker face is hard to maintain. I have learned how to look respectful when I want to laugh out loud. "What the court bases the property division on is its present worth. Unless the furniture is worth more now then it was then, it wouldn't matter. Even if it still existed, all the court might do is let you keep it. You would still have to divide the rest of the property." I said, hoping biting my cheek would hold back my giggles.

Dick was almost crying by then. What amazes me is that he called me a couple days later and told me they had reconciled. I was not the least surprised that he tried. If his doctor had told him that he was dying, he couldn't have been more devistated then he was when I told him half of what he acquired would be awarded to his wife..

What confounds me is that she would have him. Maybe she didn't mind just getting a certain amount for an allowance. Men had a lot of control in that generation. Women were treated like children in money matters, and they accepted it because that is all they knew. This case does make me realize how far women have come in the last 50 years, and I thank heavens for the change.

Lucille Uttermohlen is an attorney with 27 years experience in family law issues. If you want to read more about divorce, paternity, marriage or other family law subjects, visit Lucille at her web site: http://www.couple-or-not.com . If you have a legal question, or just want to chat, write to Lucille at lucille@utter-law.com

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