In Wenninger v. Wenninger, decided May 7, 2024, the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that an equitable distribution judgment was void for lack of a necessary party because the parties in the equitable distribution proceeding stipulated in a pre-trial order that certain items of property were held in a revocable Trust and further stipulated that some of the property held by the Trust was marital property. The court of appeals held that the Trust was a necessary party, even though the trial court refused to distribute the items in the Trust because they were not owned by either party.
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Tag: revocable trust
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Equitable Distribution: Stipulation in a Pretrial Order Makes Revocable Trust a Necessary Party
The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently voided an entire equitable distribution judgment because the trial court denied a motion to add as a party a revokable trust alleged to be a necessary party, even though the motion was made more than three months after the conclusion of the equitable distribution trial. In Wenninger v. Wenninger, decided May 7, 2024, the appellate court held that the equitable distribution judgment was void for lack of a necessary party because the parties in the equitable distribution proceeding stipulated that items of property titled in the name of the trust were marital property, even though the trial court refused to distribute the items because they were not owned by either party.
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