The Maine Marital Property Act: The Duties of Divorce Courts and The Right to an Equitable Share of Marital Assets

In 1971, the Maine Legislature enacted a statute entitled An Act Relating to Division of Real and Personal Property by the Court under a Decree of Divorce. In adopting section 722-A, the Maine Legislature replaced inequitable divorce laws with provisions patterned after section 307 of the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act (UM & DA). Under the previous Maine statutory scheme, status of title and notions of fault governed the distribution of property at divorce. Relying upon equitable principles drawn from partnership law and community property doctrines, section 307 of the Uniform Act, and section 722-A of the Maine Act, place primary reliance upon the recognition of the spouses' actual contributions to marriage as the fundamental guideline for dividing the property. This Comment's central thesis is that section 722-A, embodying the concept of marital partnership, creates an equitable rule mitigating the unjust results generated by prior divorce laws that emphasized title and ownership as guidelines for property division. This duty to divide marital, or jointly acquired, property includes responsibility to review property settlements and to insure widest discovery and fair valuation of assets. While the statute itself injects considerations of flexibility and justice into the process of property disposition at divorce, equitable doctrines and community property principles which promote flexibility in application of the statute and a fair division of assets should be grafted upon the Maine statutory scheme.