IICLE Family Law Flash Points - February 2013

1.         Date of dissolution of marriage is the proper date of valuation in bifurcated proceedings.  The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Court’s decision regarding the proper date for valuation of assets in bifurcated proceedings.  The Appellate Court held that the appropriate date was the date as close as practicable to the date of trial on the property division.  However, the Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the long-standing precedent that the proper date of valuation is the date of dissolution of marriage.  In this particular case, the petition for dissolution of marriage was filed in 2000, an order entitled “Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage” was entered in 2004, and thereafter in 2011, the circuit court entered the written order certifying the question regarding the appropriate valuation date.  In its ruling, the Supreme Court relied on the rationale that marital property rights cannot inure in property acquired after a dissolution of marriage. Allowing a date of valuation after the dissolution and near a trial on the property division leads to each party alternatively hoping for an increase or decrease in the valuation of the assets by the time of trial.  The Court also noted that in this particular case the extreme length in delay after the judgment was entered was due to the fact that the parties had to keep updating discovery and argued over certain projected increases and decreases in the estate. In re the Marriage of Mathis, 2012 IL 113496.

2.         Bifurcation is appropriate when marital issues negatively affect the children.  The trial court’s decision to bifurcate judgment because of the negative effect the marital issues were having on the children was not an abuse of discretion.  At the hearing on the grounds for dissolution of marriage, the wife testified to each of the necessary grounds for entry of judgment pursuant to irreconcilable differences.  Husband neither impeached wife or offered any contradictory evidence.  Wife also testified concerning a specific instance where the minor children saw the husband force her head to the bathroom floor.  In its decision, the Court relied on In re the Marriage of Wade, 408 Ill.App.3d 775 (1st Dist. 2011) which held that bifurcation could be necessary to protect and promote the emotional and mental well-being of the parties’ children. In re the Marriage of Tomlins, 2013 IL App (3rd) 120099.