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Toward A Coherent Interpretation Of Maine's Marital Property Act, John C. Sheldon

Maine Law Review

Interpreted literally, Maine's Marital Property Act (MPA) excludes all wedding gifts from the marital estates of divorcing spouses. Wedding gifts received before a wedding are nonmarital because they were not received during the marriage. Wedding gifts received after a wedding are nonmarital because they were gifts, which appear to be expressly excluded from the marital estate by the statute's definition of marital property. In short, a literal reading of the MPA prevents Maine's divorce courts from exercising any discretion in the distribution of what must, by any measure of common sense, be quintessential examples of marital property. This curious state …