Case ID: ad2d_178/html/0683-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Linda L. Garcia, Respondent, v Julian Garcia, Appellant.
   — Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Lynch, J.), granting plaintiff a divorce, entered May 7, 1990 in Schenectady County, upon a decision of the court.

While defendant filed a timely notice of appeal from the judgment of divorce, this court has recently noted that "[i]n the absence of a final judgment awarding equitable distribution, a finding of divorce is not effective” (Sullivan v Sullivan, 174 AD2d 862). Therefore, because Supreme Court’s judgment only granted plaintiff a divorce but failed to make an award of equitable distribution, the judgment appealed from was nonbinding, nonfinal and without legal effect (see, supra; see also, Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [5] [a]); the appeal therefrom must accordingly be dismissed.

Mahoney, P. J., Casey, Weiss, Levine and Harvey, JJ., concur. Ordered that the appeal is dismissed, without costs.