Fill and Sign the Minnesota Partition Form

STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF       JUDICIAL DISTRICT FAMILY COURT DIVISION In Re the Marriage of: Court File No. , Petitioner, PETITIONERS MEMORADUM OF LAW AND , Respondent, STATEMENT OF FACTS Petitioner and Respondent are in the process of dissolving their _____ year marriage. During their marriage the Petitioner and Respondent made a home for and raised their _______ children to adulthood while they worked together to build their marital estate. That estate today has a very conservatively estimated value in excess of $ ____________ . At the present time, Petitioner receives Respondent's paychecks from ____________________ . Petitioner also receives his/her salary from ____________________ . As pointed out in Petitioner's Memorandum of Law dated _____________ , 20 ___ , Petitioner will have approximately $ _____________ available to him/her from these sources during 20 ___ . This is compared to almost $ __________________ in marital income that (s)he and Respondent had available in _______ and the $ ______________ in marital income available to the parties in ______ . The only fact that has changed since the submission of Petitioner's first Memorandum of Law is that _____________________________________________________________ . The parties and their attorneys have held lengthy meetings to discuss the valuation and distribution of the parties' estate. An in-kind division of the parties' business entities and related properties is unfeasible given the nature of the businesses. Likewise, valuing the businesses with the intent that - 1 - one party would buy the other out is not a reasonable choice given the size and structure of the estate. The only reasonable choice available is to develop a plan to sell the parties' business entities and related properties and divide the proceeds between the parties. ISSUES WHETHER THE COURT CAN ORDER THE SALE OR LIQUIDATION OF THE PARTIES' BUSINESS ENTITIES AND RELATED PROPERTIES AND DIVIDE THE PROCEEDS OF SUCH SALE BETWEEN THE PARTIES? YES, THE COURT CAN ORDER THE SALE OR LIQUIDATION OF THE PARTIES' BUSINESS ENTITIES AND RELATED PROPERTIES AND DIVIDE THE PROCEEDS OF SUCH SALE BETWEEN THE PARTIES. Minnesota Statutes empower the Court to: ...make a just and equitable division of the marital property of the parties without regard to marital misconduct, after making findings regarding the division of the property. The court shall base its findings on all relevant factors including the length of the marriage, any prior marriage of a party, the age, health, station, occupation, amount and sources of income, vocational skills, employability, estate, liabilities, needs, opportunity for future acquisition of capital assets, and income of each party. The court shall also consider the contribution of each in the acquisition, preservation, depreciation or appreciation in the amount or value of the marital property as well as the contribution of a spouse as a homemaker. It shall be conclusively presumed that each spouse made a substantial contribution to the acquisition of income and property while they were living together as husband and wife. Minn. Stat. Ann. ?518.58, Subd. 1 (West Supp. 1991). Here Petitioner seeks an equitable division of the estate that the parties have amassed over nearly half a century. In order to effect that division, the court has the authority to order the sale of the parties' business entities and related properties or other assets held in the parties' marital estate. Nardini v. Nardini , 414 N.W.2d 184, 188. Sale of the businesses is particularly appropriate in the present case given the ages of the parties and the nature of their business entities. The Court in Nardini noted that sale or liquidation may be the appropriate method of dividing family-owned businesses when the parties are near or at retirement age. Id. at 188. That is precisely the situation that the parties face in the present case. The Petitioner is ___ years of age and the Respondent is - 2 - ___ years of age. They have reached that time in their lives when they are in a position to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Achieving the goal suggested by _______________ in ____________ of placing both parties in the optimum position can best be accomplished by ordering the businesses sold and ordering that a plan including a time-table for the active marketing of the businesses be submitted without further delay. CONCLUSION Statute and case law clearly support the authority of the Court to order the sale of family- owned businesses and distribution of the proceeds to the parties in a marriage dissolution action. Given the ages of the parties and the nature of their business holdings, an order directing the sale of the parties' business entities and related properties and ordering the proceeds divided between the parties is the only appropriate method of distributing this enormous estate. DATED: _____________ , 20 ___ ___________________________ __________________________ Attorney for Petitioner Attorney for Respondent #1 Address #1 Address #2 Address #2 Address City, State Zip City, State Zip Telephone ( ____ ) __________ Telephone ( ____ ) __________ Attorney Reg. No.: ______ Attorney Reg. No.: ______ - 3 -