Sunday, February 8, 2009

14-Year-Old Property Battle

More than 14 years after Edna Jane Favreau says she got shortchanged in a divorce settlement from a now-dead ex-husband whom she said tried to kill her, Favreau won't quit fighting for what she says is hers.

Short on funds and with no legal aid group willing to take up her case, she's been through federal court and even appealed to the Florida Supreme Court for not being heard in the probate case of her ex-husband.

Favreau made up to $75,000 a year and had property. Now, about all she has left is what she says is her share of the 910-square-foot house, with a property-appraiser value of $71,000. She says she's entitled to more than half of what the property might fetch, because she was a spousal-abuse victim.

When the husband petitioned for divorce from Edna, which she says she granted, the assets were to be divided in half. But Edna says she was tricked into believing the assets, which were tied up in rental properties, would be divided. "They were never disbursed."

Walter remarried after their divorce, and Edna says her share was co-mingled into the new marriage. Some of the houses they owned were sold. When Walter died in Edgewater in 2003 at the age of 67, he left just about everything to his third wife, Anna May Favreau.

When Walter's widow went to probate court, Edna jumped into that case, claiming she had a lien worth $139,000 for her share of the estate.

Circuit Judge C. McFerrin Smith considered but didn't recognize her liens and closed the case in 2007. Filing thousands of self-typed pages, Edna appealed, to no avail, up the chain to U.S. District Court, claiming she'd been victimized.

Full Article and Source:
Ex-wife won't give up on 14-year-old property battle

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

14 years? That's awful. This poor woman.

I understand that people fight for the principle, but they need to be aware of the monetary cost of the principle.