Bowen v. Bowen

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

This case concerns the valuation and equitable distribution of a spouse’s minority stock interest in a closely held corporation. The specific question is whether a court, in effecting distribution of the assets, and faced with difficulty .in fixing value, should permit the stockholder husband to retain ownership of all of the stock and award the wife an equitable one-half interest in the stock. We hold that a court should not and reverse the judgment below.

The parties were married in 1955 and had four children. At the time of trial, three…