Q: should final decree include properties that are sold and foreclosed as awarded to a spouse?
after a trial, divorce decree was completed by opposing counsel (husband atty) and wife(me) objected to the inclusions of property awarded to her. the decree stipulated i was awarded a home that was foreclosed in 2015, a home that was sold in 2013 and a home that husband alleges was mine but it does not belong to me. i stated this in court several times. He was awarded 2 properties that were already sold 3 years ago, exactly 5 months after he served me with suit. He included them in discovery 4 months after he sold them (july 2021) and they were listed as real properties. i was awarded 15K in installments -this is what i was awarded. he got over 500k if 2 sold properties are included. Is this typical. i thought i had "objected" when i emailed OC that i did not agree with the phrasing. he did not respond and judge did not allow me to explain why i disagreed. turns out that judge had already signed nd filed judgment by time we had hearing.
A:
There is no need to, or harm in, including such properties in a divorce decree.
With respect to properties sold after he served you with suit, ordinarily the court's standing orders prohibit either party from selling any real property in either party's name during the pendency of a divorce suit without leave of court. Either spouse selling such properties without leave of court could give rise to a claim by the other spouse to set aside the sale as a fraudulent transfer of marital assets. Arguably, the attorney drafting the decree might have been attempting--somewhat inartfully--of avoiding this by awarding the sold properties to your ex-husband so you would not have standing to challenge the sales later as a fraudulent transfer. I wouldn't consider that to be the preferred way of addressing the issue in drafting the decree, but it does you no harm if you were only awarded $15K in installments as part of the court's just and right division of your property.
I don't see any reason you were awarded a home that was foreclosed in 2015 and another that was sold in 2013. With respect to the one that your ex-husband claims you own but you deny you own, one would think that a certified copy of the deed was introduced into evidence at some point in your trial. If not, the court may just be "hedging its bet" so to speak by awarding any interest in that home to you to clarify that your ex-husband has not interest in that home.
If your ex-husband was awarded $500K in actual assets existing at the time of your divorce and you were only awarded $15K in installments, that would be a very large disproportionate division of assets that would require substantial evidence to support to avoid being set aside as a clear abuse of discretion. But an attorney would need to be sure that you are not simply using the net proceeds from the sales that occurred three years ago in coming up with the $500K. Every divorce case turns on its own unique facts and circumstances and a judge can only make a property division based on the evidence presented at trial.
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