Summary
The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed a divorce judgment that awarded the wife possession and ownership of real property titled solely in her name and required each party to pay his or her own attorney's fees. The court held that the husband failed to establish reversible error concerning equitable division because neither party requested factual findings and the trial court could have determined that the property was nonmarital. The court also held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in declining to award the husband attorney's fees.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court erred by failing to award Husband a portion of four parcels titled solely in Wife's name on the ground that they were marital property.
- Whether the trial court erred by failing to require Wife to pay Husband's attorney's fees.
Holdings
- The trial court did not commit reversible error by failing to award Husband any portion of the four parcels. Property acquired during a marriage is not automatically marital property; only property acquired as a direct result of the parties' labor and investments during the marriage is subject to equitable division. Because Husband did not request findings of fact and the record did not establish legal error in the trial court's factual determination, the judgment could not be reversed.
- The trial court did not abuse its discretion by requiring each party to bear responsibility for his or her own attorney's fees.
Key quotations
“Property does not become a marital asset simply because one of the spouses obtains it during the course of the marriage.” (658 S.E.2d at 572)
“Husband had the burden of proving that the four tracts were marital assets.” (658 S.E.2d at 572)
Factual background
The parties were involved in a divorce action, and the trial court conducted a bench trial. The final decree identified eight parcels of real property as owned and exclusively titled in Wife's name and allowed her to retain possession and ownership, but it did not separately address equitable distribution of marital property. Husband argued that four parcels acquired during the marriage were marital assets and that he was entitled to a share, and he also sought an award of attorney's fees.
Procedural history
Wife instituted a divorce action. After a bench trial, the superior court entered a final decree addressing eight parcels of real property titled in Wife's name but not expressly making an equitable distribution of marital property, and ordered each party to pay his or her own attorney's fees. Husband moved for a new trial; after that motion was denied, he sought and obtained a discretionary appeal under the Supreme Court of Georgia's Pilot Project for domestic-relations cases. The Supreme Court affirmed.