My STBX sold some personal property to a friend of his right before we separated. It was some business equipment that I helped pay for and some personal items that I gave him as a christmas gift. He sold it all for $2000. his friend gave him $500 down and pays him $300 a month until its paid off. He lied and told me he only gave him $200 down, which my ex kept. We split up a few weeks later. I have not received one dime of the money he gets every month. He is saying since it was his business (which I did all the advertising for and invested about $5000 in) that its his. The stuff he sold was all purchased after we were married. I agreed to sell the stuff because he didn’t want the business any more. Since then he has sold all the tools and equipment. My question is… when we go to court for ED, can I claim half of the money (the $2000 I agreed to) from the sale of the stuff he sold while we were together since he is still getting payments from it? Also, do I have to subpeona the friend he sold it to to show how much he paid? Lastly, since he had the business before we got married, but I worked for it, for nothing, and paid for the equipment updates, can I claim half of what he sold?
What you receive from the business is going to depend on what portion of the business is marital (there will be a marital portion since there was active work done to grow the business during the marriage.) The marital portion can be determined in an equitable distribution. You certainly have a claim to a part of this business and the equipment which you helped buy. You should be able to obtain the sales and other information you need in the process of discovery.