This One Was a True Marital Imbroglio—Doesn’t Look Like Anyone “Won.”
Marriage of Aitchison, Case No. A134450 (1st Dist., Div. 2 Jan. 24, 2014) (unpublished), is a monument to the fees and costs that can be spent in a volatile dissolution matter. Here is the beginning of this opinion: “‘[T]he parties appear in this case to me to be in a position of both trying to achieve exsanguination of the other side. Death by a thousand paper cuts until there is no money left . . . .’ So astutely observed the [family law judge] during the trial of this marital dissolution case. While, sadly, this is often true in divorce cases, it is particularly so here, where former spouses David and Grace Aitchison incurred more than $1.5 million in attorney and expert witness fees in their fight over property division and support after the demise of their 22-year marriage. At the end of the day, after having rejected two very generous settlement offers by David, Grace was left with a share of the modest community estate, while David retained his substantial separate property.”
Wow! At the end of the day in a very contentious divorce, wife had to eat multiple 100,000s in fees. The appellate court awarded only portions of her incurred fees because her attorney was not prepared and insisted on going first, though the burden of proof on separate property issues rested with husband, who asked to go first to no avail. Also, she was hit with Family Code section 271 sanctions of $25,000 for an appellate writ petition deemed needless in nature. On an overall basis, no one won here but maybe, possibly the attorneys (and that may be a stretch given what each side owed their counsel).
And that may be a stretch . . .