Preview:

Final Copy 286 Ga. 805

S09F1718. NEWMAN v. PATTON. Benham, Justice. Appellant Kenna Newman appeals from a final decree of divorce.1 Appellant and appellee Sean Patton were married September 1, 2002, and became officially separated on August 1, 2007. The parties' primary dispute concerns the division of stock options awarded to appellant from one of her employers. Appellant had a total of 140,750 stock options issued to her from her employer Crown Castle for whom she worked from May 1999 to April 2006. Although the stock options were all awarded to her prior to the marriage, a portion vested before the marriage and a portion vested during the marriage. When she left her employment with Crown Castle in April 2006, appellant risked losing all of her accumulated options unless she exercised them within two years of leaving the company. Accordingly, she exercised her Crown Castle options in 2006 and 2007, using them to create a Charles Schwab investment portfolio. The trial court held a final hearing on September 9, 2008, and issued the final divorce decree on February 16, 2009. Determining there was no Georgia

We granted Newman's application for discretionary appeal under the Court's Pilot Project for divorce cases.

1

case law on point and relying on cases from Virginia,2 the trial court held the 56,993 options which vested before the marriage were not marital property and the 83,757 options which vested during the marriage were akin to deferred compensation and thus constituted marital property to which appellee was entitled to his equitable share of 40.5%. The final decree of divorce also

determined appellee was entitled to 40% of an IRA account which appellant opened prior to the marriage and to which she made only a contribution of $500 during the marriage. In addition, the trial court held that appellee was entitled to $200 of a deferred compensation plan account appellant opened prior to the marriage and to which she made no contribution during the marriage. 1. Appellant contends the trial court erred when it determined that the Crown Castle stock options which vested during the marriage were marital property subject to equitable division. While we express no opinion as to the ultimate outcome in this case, we agree the trial court erred when it relied on Virginia cases interpreting a Virginia statute (Va. Code Ann.

Download S09F1718. NEWMAN v. PATTON.pdf

Georgia Law