# Newby v. Newby

> Indiana Court of Appeals · August 30, 2000 · 734 N.E.2d 663

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9717153

## Case

- **Full name:** Linda NEWBY, Appellant-Petitioner, v. John NEWBY, Appellee-Respondent
- **Court:** Indiana Court of Appeals
- **Decided:** August 30, 2000
- **Citations:** 734 N.E.2d 663; 2000 Ind. App. LEXIS 1337; 2000 WL 1225464
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Mattingly
- **Judges:** Darden, Brook, Mattingly
- **Cited by:** 6 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9717153

## Opinion text

MATTINGLY, Judge,
concurring in result.
I concur fully in issues 1, 2 and 4. I concur in result on issue 3. I agree that the trial court did not err in ordering an unequal division of the marital estate. However, I am concerned that Wife’s eligibility for Medicaid might have influenced the property division as well as the trial court’s decision not to award maintenance payments to Wife.
The trial court noted in its findings of fact that Wife had been rejected for Medicaid benefits because she had received temporary maintenance from Husband, and it further noted that if, after the dissolution, Wife “does not receive direct maintenance payments from [Husband] ... she will qualify for Medicaid. The court finds that [Wife] would be best served by qualifying for Medicaid benefits for her future health care and custodial costs.”
To the extent that the unequal division of the marital property was influenced by Wife’s Medicaid status, that was error. I believe the reasoning we articulated in Lowes, 650 N.E.2d at 1176 is as applicable to marital property division as it is to decisions whether to award maintenance. I would remand for a re-examination by the trial court of the division of the marital property to ensure that Wife’s Medicaid eligibility was not a factor in that division.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9717153. Public record. Not legal advice.
