Sara Branden v. Lars Branden (2010)

ORDER

The Court (ABERY-WETSTONE, J.) enters the following orders:

1. The marriage is dissolved on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown.

2. The Husband shall pay to the Wife alimony in the amount of $2,500.00 per month.

3. The Husband shall pay alimony for a period of three years from today's date.

4. The Husband shall retain all right, title and interest in the real estate known as 13 Chestnut Lane, Woodbridge, CT and shall hold the Wife harmless with respect to any mortgage debt and any other liabilities connected with the property.   The property is currently subject to foreclosure action until the law is past and the Plaintiff is required to move she shall have exclusive possession of the property

5. The Husband shall cooperate with the Wife should she elect to exercise her COBRA rights through the Husband's health insurance.

6. The Court does have some concern that his employment with Yale has been terminated and the COBRA election period may have expired.   Therefore, if COBRA insurance is unavailable the Husband shall pay the sum of up to $1,000 per month towards the Wife's medical coverage for a period of thirty-six months, the COBRA coverage period.

7. Each party shall assume responsibility for the debts lists on his or her respective financial affidavits.

8. The Husband shall be responsible for any liabilities in his individual name or jointly with the Wife that he failed to list on his financial affidavit and shall indemnify and save the Plaintiff harmless with respect thereto.   That includes the debt for income taxes, the State of New York, the civil lawsuit regarding the automobile accident, and the foreclosure action if there is any deficiency judgment.

9. The Husband shall be solely responsible for any liabilities on the joint federal and state income taxes during the period of the marriage.

10. The Wife is awarded all personal property remaining in the marital residence and shall be allowed to dispose of the property as she wishes.

11. The Plaintiff shall receive one hundred percent of the Husband's Vanguard money market Columbia University account number ending in 067 valued at approximately $22,853.92 as of June 30th together with any earnings and losses to the date of distribution.   This shall be done in accordance with a qualified domestic relations order to be prepared by Elizabeth McMahon with the cost of the QDRO to be paid by the Husband.

12. The Court retains jurisdiction to enter a qualified domestic relations order and order the distribution of the funds to the Wife.

13. The Wife shall also receive 100 percent of the Husband's Yale University retirement plan valued at approximately $22,605.76 as of October 2010 together with any earnings and losses to the date of distribution.   Transfer shall be done in accordance with a qualified domestic relations order to be prepared by Elizabeth McMahon with the cost of the QDRO to be paid by the Husband.

14. The Court shall retain jurisdiction to enter a qualified domestic relations order and over the distribution of the funds to the Wife.

15. The Wife shall retain one hundred percent of her 401K.

16. Given the History of the file and the Husband's repeated failure to comply with court orders the Court finds that the value of the alimony awarded to the Plaintiff is $90,000 over three years.   The COBRA coverage has a value of up to thirty-six thousand dollars over a period of three years.   The Court finds that there is a current alimony arrearage of $12,500.00.   That would be a total of $138,500.00.

17. If the Husband is one month late in any of his payments ordered herein the Wife shall have a lien on his AVRA stock in the amount of $138,500.00.   And then after she receives that amount the alimony order would be extinguished.

18. Alimony terminates on the death of either party, the remarriage of the Wife or three years from today's date.

19. The Plaintiff is awarded $10,000 in counsel fees.   The Court finds that the Husband's failure to appear in court, failure to cooperate with production requests, failure to cooperate with service of process with the marshals, failure to appear in court have all increased the Wife's counsel fee's exponentially.   In addition the Husband was requested by the Court to participate in this matter either by Skype or by telephone and he failed to find a place to put him under oath.   He's currently located in the country of Sweden.

20. The order of counsel fees is in the nature of a domestic court order and shall be added to the $138,500.00 attachment on the AVRA stock.

(ABERY-WETSTONE, J.)

Abery-Wetstone, Holly, J.