Opinion ID: 2192444
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Castine Property

Text: [¶ 17] Sewall purchased the Castine property in October 1993, before his marriage. At the time, Sewall also owned property in Brooklin that his father gave him. To purchase the Castine property, Sewall took out a home equity loan on his Brooklin property. Sewall made monthly home equity payments of $2,000 from October 1993 to June 1995. Sewall sold the Brooklin property, and, in June 1995, he used the proceeds of the sale to retire the home equity loan. The court concluded that [g]iven the origin of the property used to `trade' for [the Castine] property, the court finds that it is nonmarital although a mortgage of around [$250,000] was paid off during the marriage. [¶ 18] Saritvanich contends that the Castine property is marital because it was purchased prior to the marriage with money acquired from a home equity loan taken out on property owned in Brooklin and during the marriage payments were made on that loan. We disagree. [¶ 19] In situations where a spouse obtains title to real property before the marriage, but mortgage payments are made during the marriage, the property will include both marital and nonmarital components. Williams, 645 A.2d at 1120; see also Nilsen, 1998 ME 109, ¶ 5, 709 A.2d at 1191. For mortgage payments to generate marital property the payments must actually reduce the mortgage balance. See Nilsen, 1998 ME 109, ¶ 8, 709 A.2d at 1192 (Clifford, J., concurring); Williams, 645 A.2d at 1120. If a property is acquired during the marriage by making mortgage payments that reduce the mortgage balance, the acquisition triggers the statutory presumption of section 722-A that the property is to that extent at least marital. See 19 M.R.S.A. § 722-A(3) (1981 & Supp.1996); Williams, 645 A.2d at 1120. Once the party establishes that the property was acquired in part during the marriage, the burden shifts to the opposing party to demonstrate what portion of the increase in the value of the property is nonmarital. See 19 M.R.S.A. § 722-A(3) (1981 & Supp.1996); Williams, 645 A.2d at 1120. [¶ 20] The court did not commit clear error in finding that the Castine property was part of Sewall's nonmarital estate for two reasons. First, no mortgage existed on the Castine property. Second, there is no evidence that the payments made during the marriage reduced the mortgage balance on the Brooklin property. See Nilsen, 1998 ME 109, ¶ 8, 709 A.2d at 1192 (Clifford, J., concurring); Williams, 645 A.2d at 1120. Because there is no evidence that marital funds were used to acquire the Castine property, the court did not commit clear error in allocating the Castine property to Sewall's nonmarital estate.