McDermott v. McDermott
Annotate this CaseWife filed for divorce from Husband in 2009 after a dozen years of marriage. The district court (1) ordered Wife to pay child support of $219 per month, and (2) awarded Husband a share of the marital assets in excess of $2.1 million and Wife a share less than $150,000, and ordered Husband to make Wife an equalization payment for over $1 million. The court of appeals modified the property division award by decreasing the equalization payment to $250,000, finding the district court failed to consider the tax consequences of the property division and thus substantially overvalued the assets allocated to Husband. At issue on appeal was whether the district court's award of the equalization payment was equitable where most of the underlying assets were associated with a farming operation. The Supreme Court vacated the decision of the court of appeals and affirmed the judgment of the district court, holding that the district court was correct in its calculation of the equalization payment and its order fixing the amount of child support.
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