If a plaintiff receives a major award in a personal injury suit where spouse not named must award be split with unnamed spouse?

No. The award does not have to be split between a living plaintiff and his non-party wife. Depending on how the Award is structured, the spouse might not even be entitled to a portion of it in a divorce action. However, In order to accurately assess the propriety of what happened, I would need more specific information.

Jason A. Richman , Esq.

There are too many variables that need to be discussed to give you the answer that you are looking for.
Contact a local lawyer to talk specifics. Getting an attorney immediately to look this situation over with you is sound advice.

Good luck to you.

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I hope that whomever this man is contacts an attorney to help him protect his rights. The award does not have to be split although if insurance companies are involved, most likely they issued the check to both plaintiff and spouse but does not mean that spouse gets a cut unless she has claims of her own.