Hardin v. Hardin

Summary

The court held that disability-insurance proceeds must be classified under an analytical approach that examines the purposes the benefits serve, rather than merely when or with what funds they were acquired. Although the proceeds included compensation for lost marital wages, the amount remaining after those marital losses were compensated represented post-marital lost wages and personal losses and was therefore Husband's separate property. The court affirmed partial summary judgment under de novo review and the right-for-any-reason rule. Justice Melton, joined by Justice Hunstein, dissented because the trial court should have made the initial factual allocation of the undifferentiated benefits.