Marriage of Geraci

John Geraci (defendant) bought a house in 1973 for $43,000, razed it in 1980 and built a new house, and began living there with Jane Geraci (plaintiff) that same year before marrying her in 1983; the couple refinanced or took home equity loans against the house six times during the marriage. In 2000, they separated and sold the house for $974,000, realizing $354,000 in net gain, which they split with Jane keeping $159,000 and John keeping $194,000; when Jane filed for dissolution in 2001, John presented evidence the house had a $400,000 fair market value at the time of their marriage, seeking to keep the entire $354,000 gain based on that valuation, but presented no evidence of his actual equity in the property at the time the house was built. The trial court enforced the parties' pre-dissolution split of the sale proceeds rather than John's proposed calculation.