Florida Divorce Appeals — getting the math right when splitting up the money; July 31, 2015 2nd DCA

Uncategorized • Aug 8, 2015

Wondering about a divorce appeal in Florida? Before you even file for a Florida divorce, are you ready for the possibleFlorida divorce appeal? Did you properly preserve issues for appeal during the Florida divorce trial or hearings? Here is a July 31, 2015 Florida 2nd District Court of Appealdecision on dividing assets in a Florida divorce which you should consider reading. If you are going through a divorce now, and your spouse used marital assets or $$$$ to pay off debt on his or her own separate property, you should be entitled to a credit, even if the value of the property went down during your Florida marriage. This sole issue was preserved for appealafter the divorce in Florida and after the Florida divorce judge issued a judgment dissolving the marriage.

How do I preserve an appeal in a Florida divorce trial?

Divorces in Florida, especially Palm Beach divorces which deal with a lot of money, are serious business
In this July 31, 2015 Florida 2nd DCA opinion, we learn of a 3 Florida divorce appellate issues but only 1 divorce issue was addressed by the Florida appellate court
In Palm Beach, the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach hears theappeals for high dollar, big ticket divorces from Ft. Lauderdale to Palm Beach to Boca Raton
This recent Florida divorce case, called Somasca v. Somasca, was in Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal
You can read about this equitable distribution Florida appeal by going to the 2nd DCA’s website and reading the opinion in the Opinions section of the appellate court’s website (arranged by date)

Can I appeal a Florida Divorce Court Order dividing the assets?

Everyone seems to know that the divorce court in Florida will do two “big” things: grant a divorce in Florida, what lawyers call a dissolution of marriage, and divide up the assets—who gets what?
Who gets the money in a Florida divorce appeal?
Many people who read appellate opinions for Florida divorces know that there aremarital assets and non marital assets
How do you deal with debt or mortgages in a divorce appeal?
What if you use marital assets to pay off debt on your separate prperty?
Does the other spouse get a credit?
Is there a Florida Divorce Appeal issue if the Florida divorce court did not get the math right?
In this recent Florida divorce appeal:
Husband = 69
Wife = 47
File for divorce in 2012
Husband owned a NY building worth about $900,000 at the time of marriage
At the time of the Florida divorce filing, the building was worth about $680,000
Husbands’ building was subject to a mortgage
The husband’s mortgage on the NY building was reduced by $23,651.16 BY TAKING MONEY FROM MARITAL FUNDS

Does the wife get a credit if husband used marital assets to pay off his debt or mortage in a Florida divorce appeal?

In this Florida divorce appeal, the 2nd DCA in Florida looked at the case of Dwyer v. Dwyer, 981 So. 2d 1254 (Fla. 2nd DCA 2008)
The pay down of the husband’s mortgage enhanced the equity of the building
Since there was less debt on the husband’s NY building, there was more value, moreequity….EVEN THOUGH the fair market value of the building went down from the time of marriage to the time of divorce
It doesn’t matter what the fair market value of the building was at the time of the divorce
What matters, and what was the important Florida divorce appellate issue, was that the use of marital funds to reduce the husband’s debt entitled the wife to get a creditfor half of that when the Florida divorce court was doing the math to split up the property
When marital money or marital assets is/are used during the marriage to reduce the mortgage on non-marital property, the increase in equity is a marital asset subject to equitable distribution. See Ballard 158 So. 3d 643
Are you prepared for a Florida divorce appeal when you are in the middle of a divorce trial?