In Re Marriage of Goldsmith

2011 IL App (1st) 093448, 962 N.E.2d 517, 356 Ill. Dec. 832
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 26, 2011
Docket1-09-3448, 1-10-0964
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 2011 IL App (1st) 093448 (In Re Marriage of Goldsmith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Marriage of Goldsmith, 2011 IL App (1st) 093448, 962 N.E.2d 517, 356 Ill. Dec. 832 (Ill. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

962 N.E.2d 517 (2011)
356 Ill. Dec. 832

In re MARRIAGE OF Jacqueline GOLDSMITH, Petitioner-Appellant, and
Greg E. GOLDSMITH, Respondent-Appellee.

Nos. 1-09-3448, 1-10-0964.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Sixth Division.

August 26, 2011.
Rehearing Denied January 20, 2012.

*520 Barry H. Greenburg, Jewel N. Klein, Jacqueline Goldsmith, Law Firm of Barry H. Greenburg, Chicago, for appellant.

Alan D. Hoffenberg, Law Offices of Alan D. Hoffenberg, Paul J. Bargiel, Paul J. Bargiel, P.C., Chicago, for appellee.

OPINION

Presiding Justice GARCIA delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 The parties agreed to the entry of a judgment of dissolution of marriage that incorporated a settlement agreement in which the parties acknowledged they engaged in limited discovery. In lieu of formal discovery, each party represented and warranted that a full and complete disclosure of his or her property had been made to the other. About a year and a half after the judgment was entered, petitioner Jacqueline Goldsmith filed a "Petition to Enforce Judgment or in the Alternative to Vacate the Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage," alleging she discovered respondent Greg E. Goldsmith concealed three assets worth nearly $2 million. The circuit court granted summary judgment to the respondent. The petitioner contends the trial court erred when it determined that her failure to engage in formal discovery to ascertain the respondent's net worth meant she did not act diligently as a matter of law to pursue a motion to vacate. The trial court also concluded that none of her claims over the purportedly undisclosed assets had merit to warrant consideration of her motion to enforce the judgment as a matter of law. We agree on both counts and affirm.

¶ 2 BACKGROUND

¶ 3 The parties had been married for 10 years when they divorced in March 2003. During the marriage, the respondent was a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. According to the parties' prenuptial agreement, the respondent's seat at the Chicago Board of Trade was nonmarital property and his net worth at the time was $3,351,500. During the dissolution of marriage proceedings, respondent's counsel disclosed to petitioner's counsel the net worth of the respondent as $6,525,000. The petitioner received $1.8 million in the judgment of dissolution of marriage.

¶ 4 Prior to judgment in this case, the respondent's counsel sent the petitioner an unsigned affidavit from the respondent disclosing his assets. Under the title, "My assets," the respondent disclosed:

  "Waterhouse Securities         - $3,100,000
  Sage                           - $   50,000
  The Peoples Bank of Elkhorn    - $  200,000
  Cambridge Bank                 - $  100,000"

¶ 5 The judgment of dissolution incorporated a marriage settlement agreement (MSA), in which the parties acknowledged they engaged in limited discovery. At issue here is paragraph F of the MSA.

"WHEREAS, the parties acknowledge each of them has been fully informed of the estate, income, assets and liabilities of the other, and each is conversant with the estate, income, assets and liabilities possessed by the other. Each party represents and warrants they have made a full and complete disclosure *521 of his or her property. In the event a court of competent jurisdiction subsequently determines either party owned or possessed property not disclosed during these proceedings, said property shall be distributed pursuant to the facts delineated in 750 ILCS 5/503."

¶ 6 During the prove-up and prior to the court's approval of the MSA, the petitioner explained her reliance on the respondent's full disclosure during direct examination by her counsel.

"Q. Miss Goldsmith, you have further entered into this settlement based upon various correspondence both with [respondent's counsel] and from [respondent] who purportedly disclosed all of his assets and the values of the same, is that correct?
A. I'm relying that that information is correct.
Q. And in reliance on it, you entered into this settlement agreement, is that correct?
A. On reliance, I have."

Her counsel continued:

"Q. And you believe this judgment, based upon the representations, and your reliance on them, made by [the respondent] that [the settlement] is fair and reasonable?
A. If it is all true, yes."

The court interjected:

"THE COURT: She said if it is all true. She understood that she could have [taken] discovery in this matter, correct?
[Petitioner's Counsel]: Right."

¶ 7 On September 8, 2004, the petitioner filed a petition alleging the respondent failed to disclose certain assets to her, which triggered a provision in the MSA that undisclosed assets were subject to division by the court pursuant to section 503 and enforceable under section 511 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Act) (750 ILCS 5/503, 511 (West 2008)). Alternatively, the petitioner asked the judgment be vacated pursuant to section 2-1401 of the Code of Civil Procedure (735 ILCS 5/2-1401 (West 2008)). The petitioner claimed that, despite the respondent's representation in the MSA that he had made a full disclosure of his assets, she discovered he failed to disclose nearly $2 million held in three assets: (1) $1.3 million in a lawsuit recovery (the Pinez litigation); (2) $300,000 in jointly held bank stock in the Peoples Bank of Elkhorn and Cambridge Bank; and (3) approximately $300,000 in refunds from the 1999 amended joint income tax returns. In her pleadings, she claimed she had a meritorious claim to each of the assets and she acted diligently based on her reliance on the asset disclosure letter and the representation and warranty in the MSA that the respondent had disclosed all of his property.

¶ 8 Regarding the first undisclosed asset, the petitioner alleged she had a right to a share in the monies from the Pinez litigation because the cause of action arose during the marriage and suit was filed during the marriage. There is no dispute that the respondent failed to disclose the existence of the litigation in his asset disclosure.

¶ 9 Regarding the second undisclosed asset, the petitioner claimed she learned in June 2004 of the respondent's stock ownership in the Peoples Bank of Elkhorn when he attempted to transfer shares of the stock solely to his name. She further claimed the bank stock was not disclosed to her because the respondent's financial disclosure, listing $200,000 and $100,000 in the respective banks, led her to assume that cash was on deposit there, not that the parties owned stock in each bank.

*522 ¶ 10 Regarding the third undisclosed asset, the petitioner alleged the respondent never disclosed that their amended 1999 joint tax returns, which the respondent filed in 2004 after the judgment was entered, resulted in substantial tax refunds: $279,328 from the federal return and $21,995 from the Illinois return. The petitioner claimed the respondent's failure to disclose these potential refunds violated the representation and warranty in the MSA of full and complete disclosure.

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Bluebook (online)
2011 IL App (1st) 093448, 962 N.E.2d 517, 356 Ill. Dec. 832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-goldsmith-illappct-2011.