Court Opinion

ID: 9591192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:02:53.333072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:08.129780
License: Public Domain

Judge PHILLIPS
concurring.
Though the judicial settlement of marital suits on almost any terms agreeable to the parties is strongly encouraged by public policy, the judicial settlement undertaken in this instance has been expressly forbidden by our law making body and we cannot enforce it. Equitable distribution before divorce has been banned, I suppose, because the General Assembly is interested in achieving finality as well as equity in marital adjudications and a distribution made before the decree is more subject to upset than one made after the decree. In all events the legislative ban is too plain for us to disregard it, though doing so might expedite the settlement of this particular case.