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Abandonment Where Do I Stand?

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babyharris2009

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KY My husband of just 6 months recently(2weeks today) walked away abandoning me and my newborn at the hospital after just giving birth. I admit he left because i had lied about a lot of things. He knew the child was not his but he signed the birth certificate any way. We had purchased a house together both names on the deed, a truck with both names and a lot of other material things, his attorney has advised him that i have no chance on being awarded any thing because everything was purchased from the estate account of the deceased wife, but all the remodel work on the house was performed by me. So do I fight for half of all the property purchased during the marriage, before the marriage or just sign the papers and have nothing for anything that i had done. Please help me!
 


Antigone*

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KY My husband of just 6 months recently(2weeks today) walked away abandoning me and my newborn at the hospital after just giving birth. I admit he left because i had lied about a lot of things. He knew the child was not his but he signed the birth certificate any way. We had purchased a house together both names on the deed, a truck with both names and a lot of other material things, his attorney has advised him that i have no chance on being awarded any thing because everything was purchased from the estate account of the deceased wife, but all the remodel work on the house was performed by me. So do I fight for half of all the property purchased during the marriage, before the marriage or just sign the papers and have nothing for anything that i had done. Please help me!
get a good divorce attorney. You are going to need it.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KY My husband of just 6 months recently(2weeks today) walked away abandoning me and my newborn at the hospital after just giving birth. I admit he left because i had lied about a lot of things. He knew the child was not his but he signed the birth certificate any way. We had purchased a house together both names on the deed, a truck with both names and a lot of other material things, his attorney has advised him that i have no chance on being awarded any thing because everything was purchased from the estate account of the deceased wife, but all the remodel work on the house was performed by me. So do I fight for half of all the property purchased during the marriage, before the marriage or just sign the papers and have nothing for anything that i had done. Please help me!
Chances are very unlikely that you'll get 1/2 of the house. You will be entitled to 1/2 the marital equity. Since it was purchased with money he had before the marriage, you can't have that and there is not likely to be much gain in equity in 6 months. If your remodeling was sufficient to increase the value of the house, you can probably claim 1/2 of the increase in value, but you'll need an accurate appraisal from a certified appraiser, so it won't be cheap (after you add in the legal expenses from fighting over it).
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? KY My husband of just 6 months recently(2weeks today) walked away abandoning me and my newborn at the hospital after just giving birth. I admit he left because i had lied about a lot of things. He knew the child was not his but he signed the birth certificate any way. We had purchased a house together both names on the deed, a truck with both names and a lot of other material things, his attorney has advised him that i have no chance on being awarded any thing because everything was purchased from the estate account of the deceased wife, but all the remodel work on the house was performed by me. So do I fight for half of all the property purchased during the marriage, before the marriage or just sign the papers and have nothing for anything that i had done. Please help me!
Did you spend any of your money on the remodel, or was your contribution labor? You could tell him that you will fully cooperate with the divorce for a fair payment of the value of your labor.

Did you get rid of household goods that belonged to you because you were buying new or yours were not needed? Then you could reasonably ask him also for enough household goods to get you started.

Of course you get your personal possessions and any gifts that were given for the baby.

Other than that, you are really sol.

To be honest however, unless he is motivated to end the marriage quickly, and therefore wants your cooperation and is willing to pay for it, you may not end up with anything more than your personal possessions, those of the baby, and what you brought into the marriage.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Oh and dad did NOT sign the birth certificate. Since he is your hubby he is automatically legal daddy. Look for him to disestablish paternity. And once that is done look for him not to pay you a dime. What have you done besides sleep with other people? What have you lied about?

How much did you actually contribute to the house? How much did it IMPROVE the value of the house? I disagree with LD -- you are not entitled to be paid for your labor. Not unless he signed a contract promising you payment. Which I highly doubt. What you are entitled to is the increase in VALUE of the house since the marriage began -- which may be nothing. Anything he bought with the inheritance is SEPARATE property unless your name is on the title/deed.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Did you spend any of your money on the remodel, or was your contribution labor? You could tell him that you will fully cooperate with the divorce for a fair payment of the value of your labor.
She is NOT entitled to that.

Did you get rid of household goods that belonged to you because you were buying new or yours were not needed? Then you could reasonably ask him also for enough household goods to get you started.
Not necessarily.

Of course you get your personal possessions and any gifts that were given for the baby.
True.

Other than that, you are really sol.
True. Maybe she can get the baby daddy to support her.

To be honest however, unless he is motivated to end the marriage quickly, and therefore wants your cooperation and is willing to pay for it, you may not end up with anything more than your personal possessions, those of the baby, and what you brought into the marriage.
Agreed.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Oh and dad did NOT sign the birth certificate. Since he is your hubby he is automatically legal daddy. Look for him to disestablish paternity. And once that is done look for him not to pay you a dime. What have you done besides sleep with other people? What have you lied about?

How much did you actually contribute to the house? How much did it IMPROVE the value of the house? I disagree with LD -- you are not entitled to be paid for your labor. Not unless he signed a contract promising you payment. Which I highly doubt. What you are entitled to is the increase in VALUE of the house since the marriage began -- which may be nothing. Anything he bought with the inheritance is SEPARATE property unless your name is on the title/deed.
I didn't say she was "entitled" to be paid for her labor. My suggestion was based on the fact that perhaps the stbx might find it more palatable to give her something towards her labor, than to be giving her a share of "his" house.

I also stated clearly that unless he was motivated to get the divorce over with quickly, she very well could end up with nothing but her personal possessions and what she brought into the marriage.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
I didn't say she was "entitled" to be paid for her labor. My suggestion was based on the fact that perhaps the stbx might find it more palatable to give her something towards her labor, than to be giving her a share of "his" house.

I also stated clearly that unless he was motivated to get the divorce over with quickly, she very well could end up with nothing but her personal possessions and what she brought into the marriage.
You stated the following:
Did you spend any of your money on the remodel, or was your contribution labor? You could tell him that you will fully cooperate with the divorce for a fair payment of the value of your labor.
You told her to ask for a fair payment of the value of her labor. If he is smart he will say no and force her to PROVE that she is entitled to anything. Especially since she has lied about various things -- which she has not disclosed.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
ou told her to ask for a fair payment of the value of her labor.
More importantly, that starts down a pretty slippery road. Why not charge him for the value of her time spent in doing his laundry? Or the time spent in cooking his meals? Or the time spent on other, more intimate matters (ignoring the legality of charging him for that time, of course). Then he could try to collect from her the value of anything he provided to her (meals while she was working on the house, whatever).

Married partners are not entitled to be paid for the time they put into a marriage.

Better to simply negotiate from the perspective of "it didn't work out, let's see if we can find some reasonable split of any increase in the value of the property".
 

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