Florida couple reconciled after wife received their home in first divorce settlement; years later, a second divorce turned the $430,000 property into a legal dispute

A Florida couple’s second divorce led to a dispute over a home worth about $430,000, years after they had reconciled and ended an earlier divorce case. During the first proceedings, the couple signed a quitclaim deed transferring the home to the wife alone. A marital settlement agreement also described the home as her sole property. But the couple later reconciled, and their first divorce action was dismissed.When the husband filed for divorce again in 2023, the wife argued that the home should remain her nonmarital property. According to Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, the property was correctly classified as a marital asset because the transfer occurred while the marriage remained intact.Florida couple bought home in 2011 with a $75,000 informal mortgageThe couple married in 1997 and bought the home in 2011 from Jacqueline Leavitt. The purchase involved an informal mortgage of $75,000, documented in a note signed by both spouses. It required 20 annual instalments of $5,400, including 4% interest, starting in April 2012. Both later told the court that no payments had been made.The couple’s first divorce case began in 2015. While it was pending, they signed a quitclaim deed transferring the property to the wife alone. They also signed a corrective deed to fix its legal description. In January 2017, they entered a marital settlement agreement stating that the home was the wife’s sole property. The first case was later dismissed after the couple reconciled.How did a couple's reconciliation lead to a second dispute over their homeThe settlement agreement said that, if the home was sold, the proceeds would first be used to pay mortgages. If money remained, the husband would receive $10,000, and the wife would receive the rest. After reconciling, the couple did not cancel the quitclaim deed.In the second divorce case, filed by the husband in 2023, he sought an equitable division of marital assets and liabilities. The wife asked for the home to be awarded to her, arguing that her husband had quitclaimed his interest in 2016. The appeal court said she had not preserved an argument that the agreement should determine the home’s status in court.Wife's earlier claim to $430,000 home failed in second divorceThe appeal court said the 2015 divorce petition could not set the date for classifying the property because that case had been dismissed without a final judgment. The parties were therefore treated as if the first action had never been brought. For the second divorce, the relevant date was the filing of the 2023 petition.The court said the husband transferred his interest during the marriage. It counted as either an asset acquired by the wife during the marriage or an interspousal gift. Both categories are marital assets under Florida law. The court upheld the judge’s decision to classify the home as marital property and upheld the decision to make the wife responsible for the Leavitt note.The court sent other parts of the divorce judgment back for reviewThe appeal court reversed other parts of the judgment. The spouses had agreed to keep debts in their own names, and the judge had said no debts would be divided. The written judgment nevertheless distributed credit card debts, so the court ordered those debts removed from the calculation, except for the Leavitt mortgage.It found conflicting figures for furnishings, as the judgment listed $2,000 for a bedroom set and $30,000 for remaining furnishings, but did not include the latter amount in its distribution calculation. The appeal court also removed $5,779.75 in child support arrears, which had not been raised at trial, and ordered the court to delete the arrears from its later judgment.Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available court records. The Times of India has not independently verified the details of the property dispute or the financial arrangements between the couple. The information reflects the findings and ruling of the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.