Freking v. Freking

Syllabus by the Court

1. A party claiming a nonmarital interest in property must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the interest is nonmarital.

2. When determining the values of the marital and nonmarital interests in real estate encumbered by a mortgage given after the parties obtained their marital and nonmarital interests, the debt secured by the mortgage reduces the values of the marital and nonmarital interests. The outstanding amount of debt secured by the mortgage should be subtracted from the fair market value of the real estate before applying the percentages derived under…