MA Appeals Court panel affirms post-divorce contempt ruling: Financial non-disclosure has a price
John Ronan and Svana Calabro persuaded a Massachusetts Appeals Court panel to affirm a post-divorce contempt ruling requiring a former husband to provide complete copies of years of tax returns filed jointly with his present wife – even when the original divorce agreement only required “certification” of his income from an accountant for joint returns.
The orders of both a discovery master and judge in a modification were based on the former husband being “less than forthcoming with his financial information.”
The ex-husband changed jobs post-divorce with a new compensation structure but failed to disclose necessary financial information in the face of allegations that he had likely shifted income to new entities or directly to his present wife.
The temporary orders of both a discovery master and a judge requiring him to disclose the joint returns were based on the “change of circumstance” of his financial non-disclosure. The trial court also ordered him to pay a portion of his former wife’s attorneys’ fees, which was also upheld by the panel.
The decision should allow the former wife to now accurately assess her ex-husband’s true income to calculate his support obligations to her.
The case makes clear that while the income of a new spouse will normally be shielded from disclosure, financial finagling by a spouse can turn that assumption on its head.
As the Appeals Court panel noted: “The temporary order was entered precisely because the husband had failed to disclose necessary financial information under the terms of the divorce judgment."