In a Georgia divorce, an injury recovery is divided by what it pays for: pain and suffering belongs to the injured spouse, while compensation for wages lost during the marriage, or medical bills paid with marital money, can be marital.
The Rule
In Campbell v. Campbell, 255 Ga. 461 (1986), a $14,000 settlement compensated the husband for a car accident that left him permanently disabled. The trial court found it all divisible and, because he had kept the money and been evasive about the couple’s finances, gave the wife full title to the house. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed. A settlement “to the extent that it represents compensation for pain and suffering and loss of capacity, is peculiarly personal to the party who receives it.” Compensation for “medical expenses or lost wages during the marriage,” however, “may be considered an asset of the marriage.” Consortium damages belong to the spouse who suffered that loss.
The Same Approach Elsewhere
The court applied this “analytical approach” to a workers’ compensation settlement in Dees v. Dees, 259 Ga. 177 (1989), and to disability insurance in Hardin v. Hardin, 301 Ga. 532 (2017). In Hardin, the money spent during the marriage more than covered the wages the husband lost during it, so the remaining $860,000 was his separate property.
When the Settlement Does Not Say
In Dixon v. Dixon, 352 Ga. App. 169 (2019), the husband’s $1,000,000 settlement did not say what it was for, and he offered no evidence of its purpose. Whether part of it replaced lost earnings was a question of fact, so the Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for him. The wife’s consortium claim failed because she was not a party to the settlement and nothing showed she had filed such a claim.
The home he bought with part of it and titled in both names, however, was marital, and the source of funds rule could not reclassify it as his.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!