Nevada family-law case summaries

Sam and David Orgad married in Israel in 1983, moved to the United States in 1990, and in 2003 started a heating and air conditioning business called Temperature Control Services (TCS). During the marriage, David mostly ran the business while Sam raised the children and occasionally helped with management. Their relationship broke down, and Sam filed for divorce in Las Vegas in August 2019. The couple was granted a divorce in August 2021, but the court held off on deciding how to split their property, whether alimony (financial support paid from one spouse to the other) should be paid, and attorney fees until a trial. At trial, the two sides disagreed about how much the business was worth. David's expert valued TCS at $260,000 but did not testify at trial. Sam's expert testified that it was worth $663,000. The court found Sam's expert's report more accurate—partly because it accounted for potential unreported income that David's expert did not—and valued the business at $629,967. The court also addressed "marital waste," which refers to one spouse spending or destroying shared money for selfish reasons while a divorce is underway. David admitted he had wasted money, including trading in vehicles for new ones despite a court order (a joint preliminary injunction) barring such activity. He suggested $150,000 as the waste figure. After reviewing bank statements, tax returns, and the business's income statement, the court found David had wasted $167,354.56 over 27 months. Using the business value, other assets, and the waste figure, the court calculated that David owed Sam an "equalization payment" of $407,660.78 for her share of the community property, to be paid in $1,500 monthly installments. The court gave Sam the option (not a requirement) to secure that payment with a life insurance policy on David's life, at her own expense. The court also awarded Sam $8,000 per month in alimony for 11 years. The Court of Appeals reached two main conclusions. First, it decided the district court did not properly explain its alimony award and reversed that part, sending it back for the lower court to redo. The appeals court noted that David's take-home income was about $7,500 per month, yet the court ordered him to pay $8,000 per month in alimony while also finding he needed $5,000 per month to live on—figures that did not add up. The appeals court also found the lower court had relied on expense figures from Sam's Financial Disclosure Form that reflected her costs in Poland (where she had been living), even though she testified she intended to live in Las Vegas with different expenses, and then estimated her expenses at $8,000 per month without explaining how. The court also faulted the lack of findings explaining why 11 years was the right duration for a 38-year marriage in which Sam was primarily a homemaker. Second, the appeals court upheld the marital waste finding. Because David admitted he had committed waste, the burden shifted to him to justify his spending, and the court found the $167,354.56 figure was supported. Sam's argument that additional waste went unaccounted for was rejected as not sufficiently developed. The appeals court also rejected several other arguments as not cogently argued or not supported, including Sam's complaint about the life insurance option (the court noted she was given a choice, not an order) and David's arguments about the business valuation and about being required to operate TCS (the court noted the order did not actually require him to keep operating it).