Estate of Charles Thomas Merrill v. Karen Merrill, n/k/a Karen Blilie
The Fourth District reversed portions of an equitable distribution scheme, holding that term-life insurance policies with no cash surrender value are not marital assets because they have no value until the insured's death, so neither the proceeds from the wife's post-petition sale of her term policy nor the husband's term policy could be included in equitable distribution. The court also reversed equal division of the proceeds from all six race cars because one car was non-marital, and rejected a promissory-estoppel theory for awarding the wife a share of the husband's policy.
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