Sentimental Value in Divorce
It’s priceless, money can’t replace it. We hear it all the time. It gets traction, because it’s not without merit. Sentimental items may include family pictures and VHS tapes, rare items and collections, and inherited mementos passed down through the family. In Michener (January 22, 2025), the divorce court was faced with assessing a value on property destroyed by a vengeful ex-wife, including the husband’s Star Wars toys, celebrity and family photographs, a sketch of Cal Ripken, Jr., and an engraved watch.
The trial court ended up equally distributing the marital assets and liabilities, except for the retirement accounts of the parties. The husband kept his retirement account with a balance of $1,078,810. The wife kept her retirement account with a balance of $803,257. The trial court referenced the wife’s destruction of the husband’s memorabilia collection to justify the unequal distribution of $275,553 in favor of the husband.
The Third District noted that the equitable distribution statutes does not consider the intentional destruction of nonmarital property, but that the trial court could properly consider the wife’s conduct as part of the broad catchall of “other factors necessary to do equity and justice between the parties.” However, the Third District agreed with the wife’s argument that “the sentimental interest of one party in . . . property cannot take priority over financial fairness to the other party.” The Third District reversed and remanded for the trial court to reduce the husband’s unequal distribution to $14,500, which is the value he assessed the memorabilia in his financial affidavit.
Personally I think the trial court only erred by lowballing the husband’s Star Wars collection. But if you can’t get sentimental value for the Millenium Falcon, then forget about those Hummels; Elvis memorabilia, and bone china.
Michael DeVoe is a divorce attorney in Orlando, Florida practicing contested divorce, uncontested divorce, timesharing, visitation, custody, paternity, child support, injunctions, and other family law cases.
