7 Haw. App. 377 - Malek v. Malek’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

40 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Category -1. The [NMV], plus or minus, of all property separately owned by one spouse on the date of marriage (DOM) but excluding the NMV attributable to property that is subsequently legally gifted by the owner to the other spouse, to both spouses, or to a third party. Category 2. The increase in the NMV of all property whose NMV on the DOM is included in category 1 and that the owner separately owns continuously from the DOM to the DO-COEPOT [date of the conclusion of the eviden-tiary part of the trial]. Category 3. The date-of-acquisition NMV, plus or minus, of property separately acquired by gift or inheritance during the marriage but excluding the NMV attributable to property that is subsequently legally gifted by the owner to the other spouse, to both spouses, or to a third party. Category 4. The increase in the NMV of all property whose NMV on the date of acquisition during the marriage is included in category 3 and that the owner separately owns continuously from the date of acquisition to the DOCOEPOT. Category 5. The difference between the NMVs, plus or minus, of all property owned by one or both of the spouses on the DOCOEPOT minus the NMVs, plus or minus, includable in categories 1, 2, 3, and 4.”

   13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Tougas v. Tougas · 9 Haw. App. 279 - Gussin v. Gussin

2. “Husband states that “[n]o Hawaii appellate court has ever expressly held that separately owned premarital property is part of the ‘estate of the parties’ and, therefore, subject to division pursuant to” law. He further states that “[tjhere is no explicit authority permitting the division of the appreciated value of separately owned premarital assets in divorce cases.” Both statements are wrong. The phrase “estate of the parties” as it is used in HRS § 580-47 means anything of present or prospective value, owned by either or both of the parties on the date of the conclusion of the evidentiary part of the trial (DOCOEPOT). The appreciated value of separately owned premarital assets is a combination of categories 1 and 2 net market values (NMVs). When dividing and distributing property, the family court may award no more than 50 percent of the NMVs in categories 1, 2, 3 or 4 to the nonowner spouse. Husband argues that the family court “has no authority to distribute property before the economic partnership even existed.” What he is really saying is that the family court cannot consider anything that happened before the parties were legally married. We disagree. The family court’s discretion when dividing and distributing property and debts in divorce cases is not so restricted.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Helbush v. Helbush

3. “Husband errs when he confuses this case with a palimony case. Here, premarital cohabitation matured into marriage. When the parties thereafter divorced, the family court, in the exercise of its duty to divide and distribute property in divorce cases, allowably considered their respective contributions to Husband’s separate property during both their premarital cohabitation and subsequent marriage.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Helbush v. Helbush