Wife foregoes valuation expert to her dismay

BVWireIssue #267-1
December 4, 2024

marital dissolution/divorce
discovery, reliability, community property, appraiser

Here’s another case where one party in a divorce matter does not offer a competing valuation and then appeals the outcome. The case is in Arizona, and the husband engaged a valuation expert to value his osteopathic practice. The wife did not offer an expert valuation, and, when the court accepted the valuation of the husband’s expert, the wife appealed.

No avail: The wife contended that the husband’s expert was not credible, even though she had the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) credential from the AICPA. Without any evidence of not being credible, the appellate court disagreed. Also, the trial court did not “abuse its discretion” because it declined to “speculate on the value” of the business and instead relied on the expert’s opinion. The trial court’s opinion was affirmed.

The case is Marouk v. Marouk, 2024 Ariz. App. Unpub. LEXIS 935, and a case analysis and full court opinion are available on the BVLaw platform.

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