When One Spouse Takes Large Sum of Money from Joint Account Just Prior to Divorce Being Filed: Is This Dissipation of Marital Assets?

In Green v. Green, Fla. 4th DCA (June 6, 2012), the Former Wife withdrew $30,000.00 from the parties’ joint savings account just prior to the Former Husband filing for divorce.  The Court found this was not dissipation of marital assets because there was no finding of misconduct by the Wife.  The Wife had used those funds for reasonable living expenses during the pendency of the action.   The Court quoted the rule from Karimi v. Karimi, So. 2d 471, 475 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004): “Where the asset is used by one of the parties out of necessity for reasonable living expenses[ . . .] that asset should not be assigned to the party who used [it], absent a finding of misconduct.”