Kathleen M. Barron v. John D. Barron

Summary

The Law Court vacated the property-distribution portion of a divorce judgment entered after remand because the District Court valued the parties' property and calculated a $57,790.17 equalization payment using Kathleen's 2022 financial statement, which was never admitted in evidence; the only admitted statements were Kathleen's 2024 statement and John's 2022 statement, and Kathleen's testimony disavowed the 2022 value of her 401(k). The court rejected Kathleen's claim-preclusion and law-of-the-case arguments, holding that the prior appeal in the same case had vacated the judgment and expressly declined to decide the financial-statement issue, so there was no final judgment and no law of the case on the question. The court declined to reach John's waived contention about his retirement accounts and denied Kathleen's motion for sanctions because the appeal was neither frivolous nor unsuccessful.