Husband’s Tactics Influenced Award, Court Suggests
A New York appeals court has vacated a spouse’s award in a divorce case, saying the result was likely influenced by the husband’s litigation conduct.
The husband, investment banker Richard Houghton, fired his lawyers at least twice and missed several hearings, the New York Law Journal reports.
The couple married in August 1999 and separated in January 2002.
A trial court had awarded the wife, Carissa Warner, $188,000 in lost opportunity earnings for a job she turned down to stay with Houghton. But the court said Warner had a salary more than sufficient to provide her with a suitable standard of living. Her income in 2004 was $167,000 and her savings was $220,510.
The court also vacated an award of nearly $253,000 in attorney fees, saying Warner is entitled only to fees as a result of Houghton’s dilatory tactics. It also said the court should have determined how Warner contributed to the appreciation of a home owned previously by her husband before awarding $73,715 for her share.
“In this case, it seems fairly obvious that defendant’s campaign of avoidance, by inter alia discharging attorneys and failing to appear on various occasions, weighed heavily in the court’s decision to grant plaintiff, without specific findings, virtually everything she requested,” the court wrote in its opinion. “While defendant’s conduct bordered on the contemptuous, the equitable distribution award must still be justified on the record, and should be supported by specific findings. The record is barren of any such support.”
