A Misguided Business Venture Can Be Regarded as Marital Waste

There are many circumstances in divorce cases where clients complain their spouse invested money unwisely in ventures. Many times, lawyers advise and courts find that the misguided investment is a risk both parties bare and neither party should be reimbursed–so to speak–for the lost investment. The reasoning is that the venture could have turned a profit and there would have been no claim then that the money should not have been invested. However, lawyers and clients should not just dismiss arguing that foolish or near-frivolous investments constitute a form of marital waste for which the marital estate should be “reimbursed.” Recently, a Mississippi Gulf Coast Chancellor was affirmed in making a man pay back to the divorcing wife one-half of money the man had invested on his own in what the Judge characterized as a “frolic.”
Roberts v. Roberts, NO. 2012-CA-01523-COA (4/1/14)