Massachusetts Divorce Law...

Massachusetts Law - What is The Overall Approach to Property Division?

Massachusetts is an 'equitable distribution' state.

This means that the judge can do whatever he or she thinks is fair. For example, the judge can order that the home not be sold so a spouse and children may live there for a period of time. Or, the judge can order that the home (or other property) be sold and the cash divided between the parties.

The judge is concerned that the total values be fair, not that each asset is divided according to whether it is separate or marital property. So, for example, the judge might order the husband to keep the home and pay the wife $80,000 in cash, even though the wife's parents might have put up the down-payment on the home and the wife's earnings might have paid the mortgage during the marriage.

Section 34.

Cases:

Moriarty v Stone (1996) 668 NE2d 1338 (The court divided the parties' separate property accumulated during 10 years of living together as well as property accumulated during the eight year marriage. It allocated approximately 69 percent of the total to the husband, who was the founder/owner of the business, and 31 percent to wife, who also worked in the business during almost the entire 18-year period.)

Zatsky (1994) 627 NE2d 474 (The court gave the business to the husband and the house to the wife. The court valued the business at book value, which generally does not reflect the value of a business. On appeal, the higher court let the property division stand, saying that the judge could reasonably have made that property division even if the business were worth much less than the $87,000 the court decided. The husband claimed that he could have proved that business was worth less than $87,000, but the trial judge had not let the business's chief financial officer testify. After the divorce, the business went bankrupt. Despite all this, the appeals court judge did not change the original division.)

deCastro (1993) 616 NE2d 52 (The court awarded to the wife half of the husband's stock in Data General Corporation. The husband, Edson deCastro, had founded Data General. This was despite fact that stock was worth many millions of dollars and the wife had never worked in the company. The judge concluded that wife had made an equal contribution to the marriage.)

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