STORY 3

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 411.

FACTS: Marlene Ostreicher is a county judge. At 9 o'clock this morning she announced her decision in a divorce case involving Marilyn R. and Bruce C. Aparico. Bruce Aparico, a medical doctor, sued his wife, Marilyn, for divorce. In a countersuit, Mrs. Aparico sued her husband for a share of all his future earnings on the grounds that she had worked and sacrificed to help put him through medical school. In her decision today, Judge Ostreicher ruled: "Because the husband's degree was earned to a large extent by the contributions of the wife, the wife is entitled to an equitable distribution of an interest in the fruits of the husband's medical career. Therefore, I am awarding her 25 percent of her former husband's future income, to continue for the remainder of their lives, or until she remarries."

ONE SIDE: Roger Swidell was the attorney representing Mrs. Aparico. After the judge's decision was announced, Swidell said: "It's only fair. She contributed financially and domestically to the creation of an asset, and she deserves her fair share of that asset. I think it is an extremely enlightened decision." Mrs. Aparico herself added: "The ruling was fair, but I would have preferred staying married. You both struggle. You sacrifice, "living with a student and counting every penny. You give the best years of yourself. Then you're not good enough anymore. You're 30 years old, with two kids and no career. The only reason I did this was to secure my children's future; I have to think about them. I'm sorry that everything had to turn out this way. But I was attending college myself when we got married, studying to be a teacher. To help my husband get his medical degree, I dropped out and started working odd jobs and raised our children for six years while he was finishing his undergraduate work and then getting his medical degree. I always earned at least $10,000 a year, and sometimes more, so I contributed more than §60,000 or $70,000, plus all my time to support and nurture our family and help pay his school expenses."

THE OTHER SIDE: James Carlisle, an attorney representing Dr. Aparico, said: "It's the first time in the history of this state that a judge has awarded one spouse a portion of the other's future income in a divorce case such as this one. The ruling is unjust and oppressive. It puts my client in a position of involuntary servitude. Certainly we acknowledge that Mrs. Aparico is possibly entitled to something, but not this kind of money, and we intend to appeal." Dr. Aparico added: "The judge didn't understand, she fast didn't understand the facts. She couldn't have considered the evidence. It's true we got married in college and my wife worked, but most of my expenses were paid by my parents and by student loans. On the day I graduated, I owed almost $25,000 in loans, and I still haven't started to pay them back. My parents gave me another $20,000-$25,000. That's how I got through medical school, not by depending on my former wife.