Marriage Not Fiduciary Relationship

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment in a matter in which an attorney wife had sued her attorney husband for tort claims based on the husband’s “alleged financial malfeasance during the marriage.”

The husband had filed for divorce after the tort claim was filed and was granted a stay while the divorce case was pending. After the divorce was granted, the husband was able to secure summary judgment on the tort claims.

The opinion describes the husband as having practiced law at a “large firm in Washington, D.C.” where he was a partner and, for a period of time, the managing partner. The wife practiced until 2000 when she stayed home on a full time basis to raise the couple’s two children and write a book.

The court held that Maryland husbands and wives are “not true fiduciaries, as a matter of law, absent an agreement establishing that relationship. Moreover, Maryland law also makes plain that a husband and wife are presumed not to occupy a confidential relationship.”

Some details are reported in a 2007 post on Abovethelaw. (Mike Frisch)