Can I change Asset Division After I am Divorced?
I get that after I’m divorced I can still go back to court about my kids and support, but what about the asset division? Can that be changed?
MOST of the time no. HOWEVER…
Just a couple weeks ago the Massachusetts Appeals Court decided an exceptional case involving an ex-wife’s attempt to murder her ex-husband.
According to a 2014 divorce agreement, the husband was supposed to make payments to the wife over a period of years for her portion of the marital estate. About a year after signing the agreement, In August 2015, the wife attacked the husband and their nine-year-old child with a hatchet, outside the husband’s dental practice. The grand jury indicted her on multiple criminal charges including armed assault with intent to murder to which she quickly pled guilty. The husband stopped making payments to his ex-wife so she sued him for breach of contract.
Massachusetts law says that parties’ rights to marital property are generally set in stone by the divorce judgment. Unlike other aspects of a separation agreement, property division is NOT modifiable.
Rare instances
But, in some very rare instances, the Massachusetts Superior Courts will change divorce-related property divisions – in response to breach of contract lawsuits. The Supreme Judicial Court held many years ago that the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing applies to separation agreements. “Good faith and fair dealing” means that parties to a contract are not allowed to do things that would destroy the other party’s rights under the contract.
In the case described above, the trial court decided that the wife violated the covenant of good faith and fair dealing when she tried to kill the husband and that the husband was therefore excused from further payments to the wife. The Massachusetts Appeals Court agreed, saying, “The wife’s violent attack, with an admitted attempt to murder the husband, could be viewed as a desperate attempt to undo the separation agreement that was designed by the parties to be the final step at resolving outstanding issues in their divorce.”
This case presents facts so extreme that it may be hard to see how it is at all applicable to other divorced spouses. To be sure, after the ink has dried, the legal grounds to change a property division are very narrow.
Reference: Nile v. Nile, 432 Mass. 390 (2000) and Rabinowitz v. Schenkman, AC-22-P-378
