Court Opinion

ID: 9571747
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:34:50.425213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:30:54.671955
License: Public Domain

HARSHBARGER, Justice,
concurring:
I cannot find a logical reason to allow fault to affect a spouse’s right to equitable distribution when the distribution is a compensation for homemaker services, and not to allow fault to be considered when the amount of equitable distribution is based upon economic contributions.
The majority opinion quite properly leaves intact our current law about alimony, the allowance or amount of which does depend in part upon degrees of fault or inequitable conduct.
It seems to me, however, that a spouse may have been an exemplary provider of homemaker services and thus entitled to *183equitable distribution of the marital assets, and at the same time have been guilty of acts recognized to justify his or her spouse in getting a divorce. There is no more reason to penalize that spouse by reducing his or her share of the equitable distribution for homemaking, than there would be reason to reduce a share allotted to him or her because of economic contributions.
I would hold that equitable distribution applies for both economic contributions and homemaker services regardless of fault; and that in instances where there is blame, alimony (or reduction or denial thereof) would reflect punishment for the fault.