Brodbeck v. Brodbeck, 2025 Ohio 980

Leah Brodbeck (Appellant) and Brett Brodbeck (Appellee) were married for about 3.5 years (August 12, 2018–November 21, 2022) and had no children.
Leah Brodbeck, a teacher, had an STRS pension that increased by $57,240.13 during the marriage; Brett Brodbeck is a chiropractor with interests in several small businesses, which the court ultimately valued at $0.
Both parties filed for divorce; after a Magistrate’s Decision, both filed objections.
The trial court reviewed and adopted the Magistrate’s decision in part, made modifications, and issued the Divorce Decree, leading Leah to appeal.
Six assignments of error were raised by Leah Brodbeck on appeal, focusing largely on property division, business valuation, and counsel’s effectiveness.
The Appellate Court applied the abuse of discretion standard and affirmed the trial court’s judgment in all respects.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Valuation & division of STRS pension	Pension not valued correctly; inequitable division	Applied coverture formula; entitled	Division was reasonable and supported by evidence
Offset of STRS by Social Security benefits	Trial court failed to offset pension by SS benefits	No Social Security benefit earned	Waived on appeal, no error found
Failure to find financial misconduct	Defendant concealed/dissipated assets (B Group LLC)	All finances disclosed; no misconduct	No evidence of misconduct; decision reasonable
Failure to consider 2020 tax refund	Court did not consider refund	--	Waived/not raised below; overruled
Valuation of defendant's businesses	Court failed to include valuable assets	Business interests worth $0	Valuation supported by credible evidence
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Received ineffective legal assistance	--	Not grounds for reversal in this context

Blakemore v. Blakemore, 5 Ohio St.3d 217 (Ohio 1983) (defined abuse of discretion standard)
Lotz v. Lotz, 2014-Ohio-5625 (business valuation under manifest weight standard)