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Date: 10-18-2024
Case Style:
Shannon Smith Gartrell v. Edward Conant Gartell, Jr.
Case Number: DR-21-900713.80
Judge: Not Available
Court: Circuit Court, Madison County, Albama
Plaintiff's Attorney:
Defendant's Attorney:
Description:
Huntsville, Alabama family law lawyers represented husband and wife in a divorce.
"The parties married in 1998 and separated in July or August 2021. On August 24, 2021, the wife filed a complaint for a divorce. On September 24, 2021, the husband answered the complaint and filed a counterclaim for a divorce. At the trial on January 3, 2023, the wife sought, among other things, an award of periodic alimony and an equitable division of the marital property, which, she claimed, included the property held by the Gartrell Family Express Trust ('the trust'), a testamentary trust established for the benefit of the husband by his mother when she died in 2014. The parties presented competing evidence as to whether the husband had regularly used the corpus and income from the trust for the common benefit of the parties during the marriage. The parties also disputed whether the proceeds of the trust could be used by the husband to pay periodic alimony.
"On March 9, 2023, the trial court entered a final judgment that, among other things, declared the husband's interest in the trust to be the separate property of the husband, divided the marital property without including the
trust property, and declined to award the wife periodic alimony....
"On April 6, 2023, the wife filed a postjudgment motion seeking to alter or amend the judgment. The trial court denied that motion on April 11, 2023. The wife filed a notice of appeal to this court on May 3, 2023."...
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Gartrell v. Gartrell, CL-2024-0290 (Ala. Civ. App. Oct 18, 2024)
Outcome: Affirmed in part; Reversed in Part; and Remanded with Instructions
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: