Marriage of Roel v. Roel

I concur in the majority’s holding that the trial court properly awarded Mary Ann Roel a portion of Tom Roel’s non-marital property because, without that property, she would suffer unfair hardship. I cannot, however, agree that any part of the contract-for-deed payments that Tom Roel receives from the sale of his parents’ property is marital.

Tom Roel’s interest in this property arose from two transactions: a gift from his mother to each of her three children individually, and a later sale to them of her life estate interest. The gift is indisputably nonmarital property. The life estate…