Marriage of Watts
Court of Appeal of California
217 Cal. Rptr. 301 (1985)
Relevant factsFree
Dr. John Watts (defendant) left his hospital job about four months before marrying Carol Watts (plaintiff) and started his own medical practice; Carol filed for divorce roughly four years later. At trial, John's experts testified that because his practice could not be sold, it had no goodwill, and the trial court agreed, finding zero goodwill value for purposes of dividing the community estate. Carol appealed.
IssueFree
Whether the mere fact that a business cannot be sold means, without more, that the business has no goodwill.