Gibson v. Gibson, 301 Ga. 622 (2017)

Jun 05, 2017

OUTCOME: Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded.

Gibson is a contested divorce case tried in the Superior Court of Fulton County that primarily addressed issues of equitable division and trust case law on appeal. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled as f ... ollows: (1) Because the husband was not the beneficiary or trustee of the trusts he created, for equitable division purposes, the transfers of property to the trusts were the equivalent of transfers to third parties and would be subject to equitable division only if the wife was able to show that the transfers were fraudulent; (2) Evidence that the husband did not actively conceal the transfers from the wife, did not retain possession or control of the assets transferred, did not transfer substantially all of his assets or become insolvent after the transfers, and did not abscond was sufficient to support the conclusion that the creation and funding of the trusts was not fraudulent; and (3) The transfers of assets held on one account were incomplete under O.C.G.A. § 53-12-25(a), and thus, those assets should have been included in the equitable division of property between the parties.