Constancy Government Receives Constructive Judgment in Excessive Stage Alimony Dispute

BOSTON (Reuters) – Massachusetts’ highest court said Monday that a Fidelity Investments executive is not required to pay his ex-wife a percentage of his future income.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in favor of Derek Young, president of Fidelity’s global asset allocation division, whose gross annual income has exceeded $ 7 million in recent years. The court concluded that Young’s ex-wife, Joy, was not entitled to 33 percent of his future income, according to a statement released Monday.

“While there may be circumstances where it is appropriate and fair to give the receiving spouse a percentage of the income of the supporting spouse as general maintenance, those circumstances are not present in this case,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

The court referred the case back to Probate and Family Court in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, where the Youngs had a four-day divorce trial in 2013. The Supreme Court ordered the lower court to file a new maintenance claim in the light of its opinion.

“I think she will do fine in pre-trial detention,” said David Cherny, a Boston attorney who represents Joy Young. He said the lower court judge could order their alimony to be 30 to 35 percent of the difference between the parties’ gross incomes, as state law allows.

“The downside, if (Derek Young’s) future lifestyle triples, she’ll have the same lifestyle,” Cherny said.

David Lee, an attorney for Derek Young, called the Supreme Court opinion an important clarifying decision as the lower court needs to consider Joy Young’s lifestyle prior to the couple separating, and not what it might have been if there hadn’t been a divorce .

“The parties lived in a spacious eight-bedroom house, drove luxury vehicles and dined regularly three to four times a week in expensive restaurants,” it said in his judgment. The couple had also bought a summer home in Nantucket.

Joy Young’s weekly expenses were $ 8,728, or $ 453,856 per year, according to a financial statement filed in October 2013. About a year later, that spending soared to about $ 12,576, or nearly $ 654,000 per year, according to the Supreme Court.

Derek Young’s gross income at Fidelity rose to $ 7.76 million in 2012 from about $ 1.53 million in 2008, court records show.

Reporting by Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Dan Grebler