The American legal system functions as a set of checks and balances. This is to help rectify if an error was ever made in a legal decision. According to a Florida appellate court, an error was made in determining the ownership of assets and marital property under the trial court’s decision to waive a wife’s ability to earn alimony and have her legal fees paid. She has now been granted $2500 in alimony, the court reversed a decision to pay for rental property and it’s possible that the temporary alimony could become permanent.

Marital property can be a trickier subject for some more than others. Yes, of course, the house, cars and bank accounts almost always ring in as marital property. However, when it comes to assets a person accumulates in relationship to their family; it’s not always so cut and dry. That’s what happened with this Florida couple, as the wife claimed assets in multiple family members’ names should actually be considered marital property. An investigation into these assets proved that they were in whoever’s name was more lucrative, depending on who was asking.

This could be constituted as fraud, but since this is a divorce case, the appellate court wanted to avoid fraud by awarding the assets as marital property and reversed the ruling of the assets as non marital property. The international location of family members and certain assets made it difficult to discern this truth the first time. It appears that certain assets were claimed by different family members, at different time, for difference reasons accordant to records. This of course, is illegal.

This bitter divorce was made more dramatic by the fact that after 17 years of marriage, the husband had run off to Brazil and was cohabiting with another woman when divorce was filed. This situation makes the possible of permanent alimony more likely for the woman as it appears there could have been indiscretions during the marriage. However, the next court date will determine that fate. It’s possible that the husband will attempt to appeal the appellate court’s decision in the highest FL court.