Schultz v. Schultz

Chad Schultz appealed a final judgment and decree of divorce entered on January 17, 2018 dissolving his marriage to Kelli Schultz. Chad and Kelli were married in September 2008 following a one and one-half- year period of cohabitation. In February 2016, after approximately seven and one-half years of marriage, the parties separated and Chad moved out of the marital home. Chad appealed the district court's valuation of marital assets and the allocation of the marital estate. The parties agreed that Chad would receive the farmland in the property distribution, but disagreed whether a reciprocal value should be allocated to Kelli. Chad argued that when considering the length of the marriage and that he inherited the property prior to marriage, the property should be allocated to him without a reciprocal allocation of value to Kelli. Kelli requested an equal division of the farmland's value through post-judgment payments to her from Chad. The district court's property division allocated a reciprocal value to Kelli and ordered a series of post- judgment equalization payments from Chad to Kelli. The post-judgment payments included an interest rate of 4%.The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed, finding no reversible error. “There is no bright-line rule to distinguish between short and long-term marriages.” When a distribution of property includes periodic cash payments from one spouse to another, a district court has broad authority to provide for the payment of interest in order to achieve an equitable distribution of the property. View "Schultz v. Schultz" on Justia Law