Opinion ID: 2332987
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Market Appreciation

Text: [¶ 27] As publicly traded securities, any increase in the market value of the shares of Exxon, General Electric, Proctor & Gamble, and Union Pacific during the marriage was the product of market forces, not Barry's marital effort. The increase in value of a nonmarital asset resulting strictly from market forces has generally been treated as also constituting nonmarital property. See, e.g., Clum, 1999 ME 77, ¶ 13, 729 A.2d at 906 (explaining that [i]f the appreciation occurs because of increases in market value, the appreciation remains nonmarital property.); Nordberg v. Nordberg, 658 A.2d 217, 219 (Me.1995) (finding nonmarital funds at issue remained nonmarital despite increase in value of funds due to fluctuations in the market during course of marriage); Macdonald v. Macdonald, 532 A.2d 1046, 1050 (Me.1987) (stating that the increase in value. . . attributable to the inherent value of the property and the economic factors affecting it is nonmarital property). This view is now codified in section 953(2)(E), which expressly establishes [t]he increase in value of a spouse's nonmarital property as an exception to marital property, and section 953(2)(E)(1)(a), which further provides that `[i]ncrease in value' includes ... [a]ppreciation resulting from market forces. 19-A M.R.S.A. § 953(2)(E)(1)(a) (Supp.2001). Thus, the increase in value of the shares of the Putnam Trust stocks resulting from market appreciation is nonmarital property.