Just how contentious can a divorce get? How about if one of the spouses is willing to go to jail for 10 years just to spite the other?
That's exactly what's going on in Philadelphia, in which a man has been jailed for more than a decade for confounding all efforts to trace financial assets that his ex-wife says should be shared with her. It is believed to be the longest time anyone has ever been jailed for contempt of court.
H. Beatty Chadwick, 68, has long maintained that $2.5 million that was supposed to be divided in 1992 with his ex-wife, Barbara Jean Crowther Chadwick, was lost in a business investment. If the money still exists, the account would now be worth some $8 million.
But that's the issue: does the money still exist? Mrs. Chadwick's attorneys certainly think it does, even though all efforts to find it - even efforts by Delaware County courts - have come to naught. Mr. Chadwick, a one-time corporate lawyer, has been serving time in the county prison since 1995.
He isn't likely to breathe free air any time soon. In February an appeals court ruled that he had failed to give full power of attorney to investigators trying to trace the assets to an offshore bank account. "Defendant Chadwick's lack of cooperation undermined the entire investigation, invalidating any conclusions or recommendations," the judges wrote.
It never ceases to amaze me at how contentious people can be during divorces; the emotional turmoil really brings out the worst in people. But money can make a bad situation worse. Some spouses just can't stand the idea of turning over "their" cash to a wife or husband who has hurt them emotionally - and they will go to extremes to prevent them from having it.
So much of the turmoil of divorce is driven by money, and in this case money has driven the husband into jail, where he remains an inmate at an age most corporate attorneys would be enjoying their retirement on the golf course. And of course Mr. Chadwick will never benefit from these funds. If they exist, he must continue to hide them, for if he tries to access them they will likely be seized by the court and awarded to his former wife as the price for his concealment.
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