Divorce – Division of Property

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WI Court of Appeals – District III

Case Name: Audrey M. Haas v. Eric F. Haas

Case No.: 2016AP182

Officials: Lundsten, Sherman, and Blanchard, JJ.

Focus: Divorce – Division of Property

Eric Haas appeals a judgment of divorce, arguing that the division of marital property that the circuit court ordered was based on erroneous legal conclusions, unfairly skewing the results in favor of Audrey Haas. Eric argues that the circuit court: (1) erred in classifying as non-divisible property a parcel of farmland that was originally gifted to Audrey, but which Eric argued had become commingled with the divisible assets; (2) erred in awarding solely to Audrey rental income and royalty payments generated by the gifted parcel; (3) erred in concluding that certain personal property was not subject to division; and (4) erroneously exercised its discretion in declining to sufficiently credit Eric for what he paid on a mortgage and toward property taxes and what he should not have to pay toward debt incurred on credit cards in Audrey’s possession that increased the marital debt. We affirm on the first, third, and fourth issues: the circuit court’s decisions regarding the division of the portion of the gifted parcel remaining after part of it was sold, the division of the personal property, and the division of the marital debt. However, we modify the circuit court’s decision with respect to the treatment of both rental income and royalty payments generated by the gifted parcel.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.