Mahoney v. Mahoney
New Jersey Supreme Court
453 A.2d 527 (1982)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
Melvin Mahoney (plaintiff) filed a petition for divorce from June Mahoney (defendant) after approximately eight years of marriage. When the Mahoneys married, Melvin had an engineering degree, and June had a Bachelor of Science degree. During the marriage, Melvin enrolled in a program to obtain a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. During the 16 months that Melvin was a student, he contributed no income to the household, while June contributed $24,000. At trial, June sought reimbursement for the amount of support that she had provided to Melvin during the time he sought his MBA degree. The trial court granted June’s request and held that Melvin’s education and MBA degree were property subject to equitable distribution. However, instead of placing a value on the degree itself, the trial court ordered Melvin to reimburse $5,000 to June. June appealed. The appellate court reversed and held that neither a professional license nor an educational degree could be considered property for the purposes of equitable distribution. Melvin appealed. The Supreme Court of New Jersey granted certiorari to review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pashman, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 779,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
