Separated 20 years, she inherited a fortune, and he kept the home

Ms and Mr Hadsall married in 1974 and separated in 1999 after 25 years. They had two children, now adults. She left her public service job when their first child arrived and raised the family. He became ill in the early 1990s, and from 1995 his work super was paid as a disability pension, which the family lived on.

When she left in 1999, she took the passbook to the joint account that received his pension. For the next 15 years she controlled it, paying him $3,000 every six months. By mid-2018 she had received about $521,516 of his pension and he about $267,687. The judge found he had lived in significantly impoverished circumstances.

After separation she received two inheritances, about $1.46 million in 2011 and about $235,000 in 2014, and gave a house worth $750,000 to family. By the 2019 trial the pool was $1,076,110, and $705,646 of it was her remaining inherited property. His pension was treated as income, not as part of the pool.

She asked to keep all her inheritances, $114,000 for a 40% share of the home and half his pension. He asked to keep the home and his pension.

Judge Willis held that the inheritances were her property and part of the pool, though their origins mattered. The judge assessed contributions at 80% to the wife and 20% to the husband. Looking at the future, he was 77, living with a serious mental illness and after major heart surgery; she was 70, in better health and financially secure. Weighing those differences, and the years in which his pension had supported her while his own life was unnecessarily impoverished, the judge added 8% for him: 72% of the $1,076,110 pool to her and 28% to him.

His pension stayed outside that pool and was not split. He kept the home, valued at $285,000, which his psychiatrist said was important to his stability, and was ordered to pay her $69,154: $10,000 within 21 days, then monthly. If he dies with money still owing, the house is to be sold to pay her the balance.