Divorced Man Granted Hearing in Property Case

A man who remarried after a divorce in which his ex-wife was given the family home deserves a hearing on his claim that the home should now be sold and the profits split, a state appellate court ruled Thursday.

The decision allows James Guthrie Jr. to pursue a forced sale of the Newport Beach home. He hopes to receive $110,000 as his half of the community property it represents.

His ex-wife, Carol Ann, argued that Guthrie should not be permitted to seek to change the 1980 divorce settlement, in which he voluntarily gave up rights to the home until 1995, when his youngest child becomes 18.

The decision will be appealed, according to J. Thomas Browne, lawyer for Carol Ann Guthrie.

“If they have to sell, she would have to move, her child who goes to school two blocks away would be disrupted, she’d lose her friends, her baby sitters,” Browne said. “Everything would be uprooted.”

Browne said she “built her life” around the voluntary settlement agreement.

James Guthrie has remarried, and his ex-wife is now employed. He claimed a change of economic circumstances, citing his need to support his new wife, according to the opinion, written by Presiding Justice John K. Trotter Jr.

“He wanted to start a new life and needed his share of the equity to do so. Unless the provision was modified, he would have to wait until 1995 to accomplish his goal,” Trotter wrote.

The decision means a judge must consider the modification request.

The appellate court also ruled unconstitutional a 1986 state law allowing modification of family home awards in divorce settlements entered into before the effective date of the law.