Insurance Broker Turned Convict Gets Equitable Distribution, Pays Child Support
Cabral v Cabral
2011 NY Slip Op 06242
Decided on August 16, 2011
Appellate Division, Second Department
Husband was an insurance broker before going to prison and losing his insurance license. Wife took over the business and when husband got out of prison, wife refused to let him work there in any capacity. He retained a much lower-paying job. Husband sued for divorce, and wife failed to comply with discovery, resulting in her being precluded from presenting evidence regarding equitable distribution. The supreme court imputed income to husband, awarded wife child support,and failed to award husband any portion of wife’s pension.
The Second Department reversed. The lower court erred in failing to include wife’s income from the insurance agency in either income or assets, thereby shielding her from equitable distribution and rewarding her for discovery noncompliance. The lower court improperly omitted wife’s income from the calculation of child support and from the apportionment of debt. The lower court should have distributed the portion of wife’s pension that accrued prior to commencement of the action. Since there was no evidence demonstrating that husband could obtain employment approaching the salary he made as an insurance broker, the court erred in imputing to him a salary of $85,000 in calculating child support.
