Stava v. Stava, 32 Neb. Ct. App. 840

Larry and Carine Stava married in 2002; no children were born of the marriage.
Larry owned two parcels of land (Tax Lot 14—residential acreage, and Tax Lot 15—barn acreage) before marriage.
The marital home (on Tax Lot 14) and barn (on Tax Lot 15) were constructed before the marriage, but mortgages on both were paid down during the marriage with both marital and nonmarital funds.
Upon divorce, the court classified both parcels and their appreciation as Larry's nonmarital property, giving Carine credit only for her portion of the mortgage reduction during marriage.
Carine appealed, arguing she was entitled to marital equity in the appreciation of the properties, especially the barn built for their joint business.
The Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed as modified, increasing Carine's marital equalization award from $45,000 to $90,334 due to recharacterization of the barn as marital property.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Classification of Tax Lot 14 (Residence)	Marital appreciation should be credited to Carine	All appreciation is nonmarital, due to market forces	Classified as Larry's nonmarital property; only credit for mortgage paydown given to Carine
Classification of Tax Lot 15 (Barn)	Barn built & financed during marriage is marital property	Barn and appreciation are nonmarital, on premarital land	Barn is marital property; Carine entitled to share of equity
Application of Active Appreciation Rule	All appreciation should be presumed marital unless proven otherwise	Proved appreciation was passive, not from marital efforts	Larry met burden for land (passive); not for barn (marital)
Calculation of Marital Equity	Entitled to share in all marital equity, including improvements	Only entitled to share of mortgage paydown	For residence, only paydown; for barn, both paydown and equity benefit to Carine

Parde v. Parde, 313 Neb. 779 (equitable division of property and classification of marital vs. nonmarital assets)