Maryland Divorce Attorney Blog

A dispute between the Baltimore County Orphans Court and decedent's former wife was recently resolved by Maryland's highest court. The ruling by the Court of Appeal's highlights for Maryland Divorce Lawyers and their clients, a point made in one of my prior postings. Whenever, a party obtains an award under the marital property law incident to a divorce, it should be reduced to a judgment and perfected as a lien in any county where the debtor's real property is located. This should be done as soon as possible. In Elder vs.Smith, the former wife of Colonel Percy Elder received a marital award of $31,500 when the parties were divorced in 2002 following 26 years of marriage. Unfortunately the former Mrs. Elder waited until after the Colonel's death in 2005 to obtain a court order reducing the award to a judgment. She used that 2005 order to attempt to bloc the sale of a home in Anne Arundel County, the sole asset of the Colonel's estate and to claim the proceeds of that sale. The Orphan's Court that had ordered the sale issued an order against Ms. Elder to remove her lien. Over two

If Ms Beale had obtained an order reducing her award to a judgment and properly indexed and recorded in the land records of Anne Arundel County, in timely manner, it would have constituted a lien against the Colonel's real estate. Her claim would have trumped his other creditors. The Court ruled that after the Colonel died, no such lien could be established. Lacking the status of a lien holder, she was lumped in with the other creditors some of which may have had precedent over her. Examples of prior claims include funeral expenses, compensation to the personal representative, taxes and medical. The Court of Appeals apparently granted certiorari because there is a split of authority amongst the various states. This case resolves the issue in Maryland bringing it in line with the majority of states.

Maryland Divorce Lawyers and their clients want to know. What happens when you recover a big award in a lawsuit and then get divorced? Who gets what? This was the issue in dispute between Anthony and Teresa Murray. Following her termination as a lawyer with a District of Columbia law firm on December 31, 2002, Teresa had filed an employment discrimination lawsuit. Over 3 1/2 years later, she received a settlement of $550,000. At the time of the divorce trial in August, 2007, Teresa had retained $274,000 of the proceeds.

Anthony was unsuccessful at the trial court level where the judge ruled that he had failed to meet his burden of proof in identifying and valuing the proceeds as marital property. In Murray vs. Murray, the Court of Special Appeals, ruled that trial judge had unduly restricted his efforts to discover information to meet his burden of proof. In its opinion the Court delineated the analytical approach that Anthony had to follow in order to prevail upon remand.

Maryland's Marital Property statute does not provide a road map for determining what portion of an award is marital. Therefore, Maryland's Courts have adopted a rule that applies to not only employment discrimination awards, but also to personal injury and workers' compensation awards. Only that portion of an award that compensates a claimant for loss of wages or earning capacity during the marriage (or loss of consortium) is marital. In Ms. Murray's settlement the award had not delineated the components of the amount she received. Anthony had attempted to develop evidence of her earning history and potential but was frustrated by the trial judge. He will get another chance to meet his burden of proof when the case goes back to the trial court.

For more general advice on Marital Property issues the reader may refer to my prior posting on this site. .