Massachusetts: Family Court Judge Appropriately Awarded Wife $50,000 of Husband's Workers' Comp Settlement

A decision by a Massachusetts Probate and Family Court judge that allocated $50,000 of an injured worker's remaining workers' compensation settlement proceeds to his wife under the terms of a divorce and marital settlement was appropriate, held a state appellate court. The husband who, prior to the divorce decree, had recovered a workers' compensation settlement of $240,000 in a lump sum, sought to keep the remaining $123,230 on the grounds that the money was not joint property. The appellate court disagreed and observed that the Family Court judge had carefully considered and weighed the equities in the situation. The wife was to purchase the husband's interest in the marital home, valued at $105,000. She needed the allocation to make the purchase. The appellate court said ample evidence supported the Family Court judge's decision.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Warnajtys v. Warnajtys, 2020 Mass. App. LEXIS 76 (June 16, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 89.08.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

Sign up for the free LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation enewsletter at www.lexisnexis.com/wcnews.