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'The Continuum of Value'

By William J. Morrison and Jay E. Fishman

Despite no seeming fundamental economic differences, there have been occasions where divorce courts in different states have reached different conclusions of value for the same type of business. For example, the appellate courts in Washington and Colorado were asked to address the value of State Farm insurance agencies operating under the same agreement. In the Colorado case, In Re: Graff 902 P.2d 402 (Colo. Ct. App. 1994), the court ultimately settled on a value for the agency that included goodwill, while a Washington court limited the value of the agency to the hard assets. The same is true for sole proprietor attorneys. In Dugan v Dugan, the New Jersey Supreme Court found that the goodwill of a sole proprietor attorney could have value as a marital asset, even though he was ethically prohibited from selling his goodwill at that time. Taking the opposite view, the Florida Appellate Court in Thompson v Thompson, 576 So. 2d 267 (Fla. 1991), found that if Mr. Thompson could not sell the goodwill of his law practice, it had no value as a marital asset.

Could it be that State Farm agencies in Colorado are worth more than those operating in Washington, or that sole proprietors engaged in practicing law create more value in New Jersey than they do in Florida? We think not!

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