It has been just over a decade since the Court of Appeals issued its decision in Fields v. Fields, 15 N.Y.3d 158 (2010). Fields ignited a discussion about how courts would, going forward, assess separate property claims. More specifically, the decision in Fields indicated at least to some degree that perhaps some assets (namely, a marital home) are so fundamental to the concept of marriage as an economic partnership that a spouse’s separate property claim to an asset of that sort—no matter how strong—would have its limits.
The First Department’s recent decision in Gorman v. Gorman, 2020 NY Slip Op 06053 (1st Dept. 2020) affirms an unequal division of another category of assets (brokerage accounts) that, like a marital home, might seem to be part and parcel of the marital relationship regardless of a party’s separate property claims. But when you read Gorman, and the trial court’s decision that came before it, together with the decision in Fields, it becomes clear that what Justice Victoria Graffeo (who wrote the opinion in Fields) said a decade ago still holds true: “there is no single template that directs how courts are to distribute a marital asset that was acquired, in part or in whole, with separate property funds.” Fields, 15 N.Y.3d at 167-68.
