Marriage of Charles CA4/3

BACKGROUND

Ironically enough, the fact that drives this appeal does not feature prominently in the briefing. It is this: Roger and Deborah Charles separated in May 2006, yet more than five years would pass until trial would begin on August 22, 2011. The story of those five years can be told briefly. Roger filed a petition for dissolution on September 12, 2006. The couple’s marital status was dissolved in less than nine months, in May 2007. About a month after that they jointly retained Duckworth & Mehner, CPA’s, as forensic accountants to value their community interest in Genesis Associates, which is an interior design firm half owned by Roger and half owned by Roger’s partner Greg Shubin. In April 2009, Roger had a conversation with Glenn Mehner of Duckworth & Mehner, the gravamen of which was that Genesis Associates was in deep trouble, and was projecting a $100,000 loss for first quarter 2009. Based on Roger’s alarms, the next month Duckworth & Mehner opined the community half of the firm to be worth $198,000, which compared unfavorably with their earlier valuation for the end of 2006 (the date closest to the date of separation) of $226,000. The $198,000 valuation, however,…