## Facts

- Spouses married in 1988 and separated in 2017.
- During the marriage (2009–2012), the husband took out federal student loans in his name (serviced by Great Lakes) to pay their adult daughter’s college expenses.
- The loan proceeds were disbursed directly to the college for tuition and related expenses.
- The wife participated in obtaining the loans, including completing/submitting applications using her email; her mother co-signed one loan.
- The parties maintained a joint bank account and made payments on the loans from that joint account.
- At separation, the combined loan balance was about $164,163.
- In the equitable distribution case, the trial court denied the wife’s summary judgment motion seeking a ruling that the loans were separate debt and instead entered partial summary judgment for the husband classifying the loans as marital.
- After an equitable distribution hearing, the trial court classified the loans as marital debt and allocated 75% to the husband and 25% to the wife.

## Issues

1. Whether student loans incurred during marriage in one spouse’s name for an adult child’s education, obtained and serviced as a shared family obligation, constitute marital debt under the joint-benefit test.
2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by allocating 75% of that marital debt to the husband and 25% to the wife.
3. Whether the trial court could grant partial summary judgment to the nonmoving party on debt classification where the material facts were undisputed.

## Decision

- Affirmed the classification of the Great Lakes student loans as marital debt.
- Affirmed the trial court’s entry of partial summary judgment for the husband on classification.
- Affirmed the 75/25 allocation as within the trial court’s discretion and supported by the findings and evidence.

## Legal Principles

- Marital debt includes obligations incurred during marriage and before separation for the joint benefit of the spouses.
- The joint-benefit requirement does not depend on the debt producing a tangible marital asset or direct economic return; family purposes jointly chosen during marriage may qualify.
- Debt may be treated as marital where evidence shows joint decision-making and shared treatment of the obligation (including payment from joint funds), even if the debt is in one spouse’s name.
- A court may enter summary judgment for a nonmoving party when the record shows no genuine issue of material fact and the law favors that party.
- Allocation of marital debt in equitable distribution is reviewed for abuse of discretion and is upheld if supported by competent evidence and not manifestly unsupported by reason.

## Conclusion

The court held that loans incurred during marriage to fund an adult child’s education were marital debt because they were undertaken for the spouses’ joint benefit as a shared family objective, and it upheld both the partial summary judgment on classification and the unequal 75/25 allocation of that debt.


Purvis v. Purvis, 867 S.E.2d 700 (N.C. Ct. App. 2021)