Higgins v. Currier

Billy Higgins (plaintiff) and Rashell Currier (defendant) married in May 2016. Higgins had worked at TD Ameritrade since 1997, and Currier worked part-time during the marriage. In March 2018, the relationship ended, and Higgins filed for divorce. In a trial to determine the division of marital property, evidence showed that Higgins had several investment and retirement accounts that had been established prior to marriage. Currier established that one of Higgins’s accounts, a TD Ameritrade 401(k) account (the 0510 account), had a balance of $218,182 as of May 2016 and a balance of $359,128 as of March 2018. The 0510-account statements presented by Currier showed that the account held stocks and mutual funds, that securities were sold and purchased during the period, and that interest income had been received. The couple also had lived in a home and incurred certain debts during the marriage. Currier requested an equitable division of the appreciation in value of the 0510 account, which she contended was marital property. Higgins did not introduce any of his own evidence regarding the increase in value of the 0510 account. The court ruled that the 0510 account and its appreciation in value was Higgins’s separate property. Currier appealed, arguing that the trial court improperly shifted the burden to her to prove that the increase in value of the 0510 account was due to active marital efforts.