In re Marriage of Padilla

2026 IL App (3d) 240683-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 26, 2026
Docket3-24-0683
StatusUnpublished

This text of 2026 IL App (3d) 240683-U (In re Marriage of Padilla) 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 Padilla, 2026 IL App (3d) 240683-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

2026 IL App (3d) 240683-U

Order filed February 26, 2026 _____________________________________________________________________________

IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

THIRD DISTRICT

In re MARRIAGE OF RAUL PADILLA, ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ) of the 12th Judicial Circuit, Petitioner-Appellant, ) Will County, Illinois. ) ) Appeal No. 3-24-0683 and ) Circuit No. 21-D-380 ) ANNA PADILLA, ) The Honorable ) Victoria M. Kennison, Respondent-Appellee. ) Judge, Presiding. _____________________________________________________________________________

JUSTICE PETERSON delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice Hettel and Justice Davenport concurred in the judgment. _____________________________________________________________________________

ORDER

¶1 Held: In a dissolution of marriage case, the trial court properly found that the parties’ marital home and two businesses that petitioner had opened during the marriage were marital property and that petitioner had dissipated certain marital assets. The trial court erred, however, in ordering petitioner to pay retroactive temporary maintenance out of his postdivision assets instead of out of marital assets, in implicitly finding additional dissipation beyond what respondent had proven, and in failing to divide respondent’s work retirement account between the parties. Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated in part. Cause remanded.

¶2 Petitioner, Raul Padilla, filed a petition for dissolution of his marriage to respondent,

Anna Padilla. After a bench trial, the trial court entered a judgment dissolving the parties’ marriage and dividing the parties’ property. Raul appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in: (1)

ordering him to pay retroactive temporary maintenance out of his postdivision assets instead of

out of marital assets, (2) finding that the parties’ home and two businesses that Raul had opened

during the marriage were marital property, (3) determining that Raul had dissipated marital

assets, and (4) failing to divide Anna’s work retirement account between the parties. We affirm

the trial court’s judgment in part, reverse the trial court’s judgment in part, vacate the trial court’s

judgment in part, and remand this case for further proceedings.

¶3 I. BACKGROUND

¶4 Raul and Anna were married in April 1999. They had two children, A.P., born in May

2003, and I.P., born in October 2009. In March 2021, Anna obtained an emergency order of

protection against Raul and had Raul removed from the parties’ marital home in Orland Park,

Illinois. Later that month, Raul filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. Among other things,

Raul alleged in the dissolution petition that the Orland Park home was part of the marital estate

and that the parties had separated in approximately June 2020. Raul certified under penalty of

perjury that the statements set forth in his petition were true and correct.

¶5 In April 2021, the emergency order of protection was dismissed on Anna’s motion. A few

days later, Raul filed a motion to sell the Orland Park home. In the motion, Raul again alleged

that the home was part of the parties’ marital estate. He also alleged that the parties had separated

on or about June 2020. Raul’s motion to sell was later denied.

¶6 In May 2021, Anna filed a petition for temporary child support, maintenance, and for sole

use of the marital home, at least on a temporary basis (collectively referred to, at times, as the

petition for temporary relief). The petition for temporary relief remained pending and was not

ruled upon until much later in the case.

2 ¶7 Over a year later, in June 2022, Raul or his parents, Sidronio and Carmen Padilla,

purchased a home in Homer Glen, Illinois. The home was purchased in the names of Raul’s

parents for $580,000. After the purchase closed, Raul and the parties’ older daughter, A.P., who

was now an adult, moved into the home.

¶8 A few months later, in October 2022, Anna, with leave of court, filed a third-party

complaint against Raul’s parents. In the complaint, Anna alleged that the Homer Glen home had

been purchased in Raul’s parents’ names for $580,000; that she had recently discovered that

Raul had withdrawn more than $350,000 from the two restaurant businesses that Raul had

opened during the marriage; that $405,000 of the purchase price of the Homer Glen home was

paid in cash at the closing of the purchase; that after the closing, Raul had moved into the home;

that Raul’s parents lived in a home in Bridgeview, Illinois, and did not live in the Homer Glen

home; and that Raul was trying to use his parents to conceal his marital assets/income from the

two businesses and his legal interest in the Homer Glen home. Anna asked the trial court to

impose a constructive trust on the Homer Glen home until the matter was resolved and a final

judgment was entered on the dissolution petition.

¶9 In January 2023, Anna filed a notice of intent to claim dissipation of marital assets. In the

notice, Anna alleged that the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage had begun in about January

2017. Anna alleged further in the notice that Raul had dissipated marital assets by: (1) taking

draws of approximately $305,000 from the restaurant businesses consisting of approximately

$59,000 in 2019, approximately $201,000 in 2020, and approximately $45,000 in 2021; and (2)

providing $405,000, which had apparently come from the restaurant businesses, for the cash

down payment that was used to purchase the Homer Glen home.

3 ¶ 10 In May 2023, the parties entered into an agreed allocation of parental responsibilities and

parenting plan. Later that same month, Anna filed a response to the dissolution petition. Among

other things, in her response, Anna admitted Raul’s allegation that the Orland Park home was

marital property/part of the marital estate. In June 2023, Raul filed a partition petition regarding

the parties’ Orland Park home.

¶ 11 In July 2023, a hearing was held on Anna’s petition for temporary relief. At the

conclusion of the hearing, the trial court granted Anna’s request and set the amounts to be paid

by Raul as $220 per month for temporary child support and $950 per month for temporary

maintenance ($1,170 per month in total). The payments were to begin that same month. The trial

court reserved ruling, however, on the issue of whether retroactive support was to be paid by

Raul for the period from May 2021 (the date the petition for temporary relief was filed) to July

2023 (the date Raul’s current payments were supposed to begin).

¶ 12 In August 2023, the trial court entered an order consolidating the dissolution petition, the

partition petition, and the third-party complaint. A few months later, in October and November

2023, a bench trial was held on all three matters. The bench trial took several days to complete.

Both of the parties (Raul and Anna) and the third-party defendants (Sidronio and Carmen) were

present in court for the bench trial and were represented by their respective attorneys.

¶ 13 During the bench trial, testimony was presented from Anna, Raul, Sidronio, and from the

parties’ two expert witnesses. The parties and the third-party defendants also presented numerous

exhibits, including the franchise agreements for the two restaurant businesses and various bank

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Bluebook (online)
2026 IL App (3d) 240683-U, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-padilla-illappct-2026.