Opinion ID: 1924796
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Date of Valuations

Text: ¶ 40. Husband's next argument is that the court erred by valuing the parties' assets as of the beginning of the final hearing and ignoring evidence that those valuations had become inaccurate by the end of the final hearing. Specifically, husband argues that the court (1) ignored the fact that BEA Systems stock was dropping in value as the trial went on, and the drop affected the valuation of the stock options, and (2) ignored the distributions of money from a Merrill Lynch account that the court valued and distributed. In making these arguments, husband relies on the principle that the court should not premise its division of marital property on outdated valuations of the assets involved and that equitable division cannot be achieved by reliance on stale valuation data. Cleverly v. Cleverly, 151 Vt. 351, 355, 561 A.2d 99, 101 (1989). ¶ 41. Husband made these arguments in his motion to reconsider, and the court responded as follows: The defendant essentially argues that the court erred in making its findings as to the value of the marital assets based upon evidence presented at trial because those values fluctuated, as the experts for both sides conceded, from week to week during trial. However, the court has no realistic choice but to makes such findings, using its best judgment. The court does not agree that its figures were stale. The court made its decisions based on its best judgment and based upon the evidence presented by both parties. The court is satisfied that, in the long term, the valuation used by the court will, when all aspects of the property division and valuation are taken into account, result in a just and equitable division between the parties. The merits hearing in this case took eight trial days, spread over three months. In this context, constant updating of the value of assets is practically impossible. We agree that the court acted well within its discretion in its valuation and in denying the motion to modify. ¶ 42. Our precedents rejecting stale valuations involve time gaps between valuation of assets and the distribution of those assets far longer than is arguably involved here. Cleverly involves a gap of three years. Id. at 354, 561 A.2d at 101. In Albarelli v. Albarelli, 152 Vt. 46, 48, 564 A.2d 598, 599 (1989), we added that marital assets should be valued as close to the date of trial as possible. The valuations in this case easily met the timeliness standards of our precedents.