Thomasee v. Thomasee The Louisiana appellate court affirmed the decision of the Trial Court in a divorce case that included the value of the husband’s business in the marital estate as community property. The husband argued that the FEMA adjuster business is a professional business and that the profits are all goodwill and, therefore, not  Continue Reading »

Asare v. Asare In this marital dissolution appellate case, the appellate court must resolve several issues related to the equitable distribution of the marital estate. On most issues, the appellate court affirmed the trial court. However, the appellate court reversed the trial court on the issue of how much passive appreciation related to an investment  Continue Reading »

King v. King, 2022 Md. App. In this divorce case, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland affirmed the circuit court’s decisions of appeals from Eric King, including, among others, the business value and the incomes of the respective parties. The parties were married in 2004. The divorce filings commenced on Nov. 6, 2019. A  Continue Reading »

Hester v. Hester, 2022 Va. Cir. Several issues were decided in this Virginia divorce case. Still, we focus on only two topics relevant to business valuation and equitable distribution: (1) the valuation of the husband’s 20% interest in an S corporation; and (2) the treatment of the PPP loan. The court issued many findings dealing  Continue Reading »

Hollis v. Hollis, 2022 Tenn. App. In this case, the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment that the husband’s “book of business” as a financial advisor for UBS was not a marital asset. “[T]he trial court properly identified and applied the most appropriate legal principles applicable to the decision, and the trial  Continue Reading »

Snyder v. Snyder In this Pennsylvania divorce case, the Superior (Appellate) Court affirmed the trial court’s decision to use the wife’s method of valuing a marital asset business after the master concluded that the wife’s testimony was credible and that her valuation method “accurately valued the business.” The Superior Court also concluded that the trial  Continue Reading »

Harvey v. Harvey This was an appeal and across-appeal in a California divorce case. Michael and Cynthia Harvey were married in 1988. Three years later, Michael formed Enviro Tech ChemicalServices Inc. (Enviro Tech). By 2010, Harvey’s jointly owned 825 shares of EnviroTech, representing nearly 70% of the outstanding stock. In 2011, they entered into a  Continue Reading »

Mohen v. Mohen The appellate court (AC) vacated the trial court order (TC) that erroneously charged the husband with $4,360,158 in unaccrued interest on marital assets that the husband fraudulently dissipated from the marital estate. This altered the equitable distribution, so the case was further remanded to the TC to issue a new order per  Continue Reading »

Marshall v. Marshall Instead of facilitating a resolution, a separation agreement between the divorcing spouses led to a protracted lawsuit. The issue was how to determine alimony where the owner spouse had an interest in a pass-through entity and the agreement was not entirely clear as to what income to consider. On second review, the  Continue Reading »

Horne-Ballard v. Ballard About two years ago, in Rohling v. Rohling, an Alabama appeals court upheld a trial court’s decision to admit into evidence a qualified expert’s estimate about the value of the owner spouse’s business based on a calculation engagement. Recently, the admissibility of calculations of value became an issue in another divorce case,  Continue Reading »