Compensation for Financing a Spouse's Education: The Means of Economic Justice in Maine

In cases of marriage dissolution courts attempt to promote economic justice by utilizing their equitable powers and interpreting applicable statutes. It is often difficult, however, to achieve a just result in cases in which one spouse supported the other who attended college and/or professional school during the marriage. In the typical case divorce occurs just prior to or after completion of the education, at a time when the couple has accumulated very few marital assets because all of the marital income has gone into living and educational expenses. Because the only significant asset acquired during the marriage is the degree, the court has no marital property to divide in order to reflect the contribution of the working spouse. Thus the court must find alternative means to compensate fairly the working spouse (usually the wife) for his or her contribution to the education of the student spouse (usually the husband). The court's difficulty arises because alimony traditionally does not encompass such compensation to the working spouse. At the same time, when there are very few marital assets to divide, most disposition of property statutes cannot be utilized to provide fair recompense in this situation unless the degree or enhanced earning capacity that accompanies it is considered marital property. The Maine courts, working within the limits of the partnership theory of marriage, have the necessary tools to devise a fair method for dealing with such claims for compensation when they arise within a divorce proceeding. Maine's alimony statute gives the courts sufficient discretion to award alimony as recompense to the working spouse. In addition, the disposition of property statute provides the courts with an alternative means to achieve equitable compensation as well. In order to utilize the property statute to provide recompense to the working spouse, however, the courts will have to allow the continually expanding view of marital property to engulf the enhanced earning capacity acquired by the student spouse. It is this Commentator's position that the Maine courts should follow the national trend and utilize these statutes to their fullest extent to allow compensation to the working spouse.