## Facts

- Anne P. Graham and Dennis J. Graham married in 1968 and divorced after a six-year marriage.
- During the marriage, the wife worked full time and provided about seventy percent of the couple’s financial support.
- The husband worked part time while completing a B.S. and an M.B.A. at the University of Colorado.
- The couple accumulated no marital assets other than the husband’s educational attainment.
- The trial court treated the husband’s M.B.A. as marital property, valued it at $32,000 based on increased earning capacity, and awarded the wife $8,000 payable in installments.

## Issues

1. Whether, under Colorado’s Uniform Dissolution of Marriage Act, an M.B.A. obtained during the marriage constitutes “marital property” subject to equitable division.
2. Whether a court may value and divide an educational degree based on its projected enhancement of the holder’s future earning capacity.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals and reversed the trial court’s treatment of the M.B.A. as divisible marital property.
- The court held an educational degree is not “property” within the meaning of the Act and cannot be assigned a divisible present value.
- The monetary award to the wife premised on valuing the degree as a marital asset was invalid.
- The court noted that a supporting spouse’s contributions may be addressed through other dissolution remedies, including maintenance, rather than by classifying the degree as property.

## Legal Principles

- “Marital property” under the Uniform Dissolution of Marriage Act is broad, but it is limited to interests that qualify as “property” in the ordinary legal sense.
- An educational degree is not property because it lacks typical property attributes: it has no market exchange value, cannot be sold or transferred, cannot be pledged, and is personal to the holder.
- Enhanced earning capacity attributable to education is an expectancy, not a divisible property interest; the possibility that a degree may lead to future acquisitions does not transform the degree into property.
- Valuation of a degree based on predicted lifetime earnings is too speculative for equitable distribution of existing marital property.
- Courts may consider one spouse’s financial and other contributions to the other spouse’s education when setting maintenance or granting other equitable relief, but not by dividing the degree as property.

## Conclusion

The Colorado Supreme Court held that an M.B.A. earned during marriage is not marital property and cannot be valued or divided upon dissolution; the supporting spouse’s contributions must instead be considered through maintenance or other equitable remedies rather than property division.


In re Marriage of Graham, 194 Colo. 429, 574 P.2d 75 (Colo. 1978)