Opinion ID: 2364278
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Gift

Text: [¶ 8] The shares of stock in the contested account were acquired during the marriage and, therefore, are presumed to be marital property. See 19-A M.R.S.A. § 953(3) (1998). This statutory presumption is overcome if the party claiming the nonmarital status of the property demonstrates that the property is one of the exceptions set forth in 19-A M.R.S.A. § 953(2). Property acquired by gift, bequest, devise or descent is nonmarital. Id. § 953(2)(A). [¶ 9] The parties agree that the shares of stock in the brokerage account were acquired by gift. Their disagreement is whether the gift was to Deborah solely or to Deborah and Stephen jointly. Stephen argues that the stock in the account is marital because it came to the parties jointly as a gift, just as the earlier inter vivos gifts of stock were made jointly to the parties by Deborah's mother. Deborah counters that the stock transferred to the brokerage account from the trust after her mother's death came to her solely as a gift as shown by the trust document in which she, and not Stephen, was a beneficiary. [¶ 10] Stephen argues that this case is similar to Lee v. Lee, 595 A.2d 408 (Me. 1991), in which the wife's father caused land to be conveyed from his trust to the parties jointly, and we held that because the wife had not shown that her father intended that the gift was not to the marital estate, it was marital. Id. at 411. In this case, unlike Lee, Deborah has shown that the gift was made to her and not to her and her husband jointly. The trust document naming Deborah, and not Stephen, as a beneficiary demonstrates that the stock was intended to go to Deborah solely, and not to the parties jointly. The trust document provided that the trust property, not otherwise distributed, was to be divided into equal shares for the settlor's living children and the descendants of any deceased children. Deborah, as one of the living children, was a beneficiary of the trust, and the stock distributed to her was her equal share of the remaining trust property. Stephen was not mentioned in the trust document, and the distributed stock was not intended to go to him. [¶ 11] In summary, Deborah initially met her burden of rebutting the statutory presumption that the property acquired during marriage was marital by proving that it was a gift to her alone.