RAUL AUGUSTIN JIMENEZ, ET AL. VS. RAUL ANIBAL JIMENEZ (L-0025-12, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (A-2495-16T1)
This appeal poses the legal question of whether N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.4, a statute that became effective in 1988, precludes a spouse's unsecured creditor from obtaining the forced partition of real property the spouse and his non-debtor spouse own together as tenants by the entirety. The panel affirms the trial court's ruling that the statute prohibits such non-consensual partition. The statute supersedes and nullifies earlier case law, such as Newman v. Chase, 70 N.J. 254, 262 (1976), which had allowed such a creditor's remedy in certain equitable circumstances.
