Court Opinion

ID: 9620353
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:41:13.682134+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:42.248596
License: Public Domain

Hunt, Chief Justice,
concurring.
Whether a particular kind of property can ever be classified as *509marital property is certainly a legal question. Thus, in Goldstein v. Goldstein, 262 Ga. 136 (414 SE2d 474) (1992), the majority of this court decided that the trial court should have held, as a matter of law, that the value of the husband/attorney’s contingent fee arrangements is not a marital asset. Likewise, we have excluded, by law, the medical degree of physicians. Lowery v. Lowery, 262 Ga. 20 (413 SE2d 731) (1992). However, most property falls into that category that has the potential to be marital property and, whether, and to what extent, such property is marital is a matter of fact based on legal principles. The legal principle we applied in Thomas v. Thomas, 259 Ga. 73, 75 (377 SE2d 666) (1989) was the “source of funds” rule which we held applicable to the facts surrounding the acquisition and maintenance of the parties’ house. In Thomas, the trial court, which was the factfinder, erred by making the initial classification of that property by exercising its discretion. That step is never a matter of discretion. In rare instances, it is a question of law. In most instances, as is the case here, that determination involves the application by the factfinder of legal principles to the particular facts.1
Decided October 3, 1994.
Martin L. Fierman, for appellant.
Waddell, Emerson, George & Buice, E. Angela Emerson, for appellee.

 The majority opinion in Goldstein v. Goldstein, supra, to the extent it implies that the first step of classifying property as marital or non-marital is determined strictly as a matter of law, is erroneous and misleading.