The Divorce Papers: A Novel
Page 16
Yours,
David
Valuing a Medical Degree
* * *
From: Fiona McGregor
To: David Greaves
cc: Sophie Diehl
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 12:32:07
Subject: Valuing a Medical Degree 4/26/99 12:32 PM
David,
I just saw Sophie’s memo on valuing a medical degree. There’s a case now on appeal to the Narragansett Appellate Court, 2nd Division, Petrus v. Petrus, No 1998-456. I hope she didn’t spend too much time on the memo or charge the clients too much for the work. The briefs pretty much lay out both sides. I’m not sure how she missed it. Could she have forgotten to look at Narragansett cases? I’ve cc’ed her.
Fiona
TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI
222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
April 27, 1999
Ray Kahn, Esq.
Kahn & Boyle
46 Broadway
New Salem, NA 06555
Dear Ray:
I have given copies of your letter of April 19 and Dr. Durkheim’s settlement offer to my associate, Anne Sophie Diehl, who will respond to the offer in detail after she has discussed it with our client, Maria Meiklejohn, and reviewed all the relevant documentary evidence. Ms. Diehl is the person best acquainted with the case and is accordingly the best person to answer you. You can expect her letter and Ms. Meiklejohn’s counteroffer as soon as we are confident that we have a full and accurate picture of the family’s financials. We will move as quickly as we can—we too would like to see the matter settled expeditiously—but we want to give Dr. Durkheim’s offer the attention it deserves and craft a counteroffer that represents the best interests of our client and their daughter, Jane.
While we agree that Ms. Meiklejohn’s knowledge of the couple’s financial situation is fairly complete, we do not believe we can in good faith dispense with discovery. It would be irresponsible of us to proceed without knowing that we have the best information available to us. Following usual firm policy in cases of this sort, we have asked Patrick O’Dell, a private investigator the firm has on retainer, to conduct a complete investigation of the couple’s assets and property. We have also lined up John Katz, a forensic accountant with Addison & Co., to review all the materials and information produced through the discovery process and Mr. O’Dell’s inquiries. Mr. Katz will also be able to provide an actuarial assessment of the annual gifts Bruce Meiklejohn has made to the couple over the 16 years of their marriage and a statement on the present and future value of Dr. Durkheim’s medical degree. On this latter point, we believe Ms. Meiklejohn has a right to some form of reimbursement alimony for the contributions she made to her husband’s career. As you know, she supported him for eight years while he was doing his postdoc, internships, and residency; she also gave up her career in New York to move with him to New Salem.
There are other steps we need to take as well. We will want a current assessment of the St. Cloud Street house. We have asked Laura Bucholtz of RealProperties Inc. to conduct it. I don’t think there’s anyone in New Salem who knows the high-end market better than she does. Last year she sold nine homes in the St. Cloud Street area, and she currently is acting as broker for three others.
I am enclosing our discovery requests with this letter. I don’t imagine that Dr. Durkheim has any secret Swiss bank accounts, but if he does, you will of course let us know. We will respond promptly to any discovery requests you make of Ms. Meiklejohn.
Yours truly,
David Greaves
Commonwealth of Narragansett
Family Court
County: Tyler Docket No: 99-27
Notice of Request
Mandatory Disclosure & Production
Daniel E. Durkheim Plaintiff
v.
Maria M. Durkheim Defendant
Now comes the defendant Maria M. Durkheim by her attorneys, and serves a Notice of Request for Mandatory Disclosure and Production on the plaintiff Daniel E. Durkheim for the following records and documents:
1. Three (3) years tax returns, including corporate and partnership, April 1996 to April 1999
2. Three (3) years IRS 1099s and K-1s, April 1996 to April 1999
3. Three (3) years pay stubs (or other evidence of income), April 1996 to April 1999
4. Three (3) years records of NIH and all other grants and awards, public and private, April 1996 to April 1999
5. Three (3) years records of all income from self-employment, honorariums, bonuses, residuals, royalties, advances against royalties, and other similar forms of remuneration, April 1996 to April 1999
6. Three (3) years records, certificates, and statements of all accounts in financial institutions or with brokers and/or financial managers, domestic and foreign, including but not limited to all holdings and shares in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate cooperatives, and other financial packages, April 1996 to April 1999
7. Three (3) years records and statements of all pension, retirement, profit-sharing, and deferred compensation plans, including but not limited to all Keogh, IRA, 401(k), and TIAA-CREF accounts, April 1996 to April 1999
8. Three (3) years records and statements of all other financial holdings and accounts, April 1996 to April 1999
9. Current written appraisals of all interests in real property owned or held by plaintiff in whole or part as of March 1999
10. Current written appraisals of any asset and or item of personal property valued at $4,999 or more owned or held by plaintiff in whole or part as of March 1999
11. Three (3) years records of all transactions relating to the sale or other transfer or conveyance of real and/or personal property owned or held by the plaintiff in whole or part, April 1996 to April 1999
12. Current written appraisals of all motor vehicles owned or leased by plaintiff as of March 1999
13. Three (3) years statements of all life and disability insurance policies on plaintiff, April 1996 to April 1999
14. All other records and statements of property, assets, holdings, or interests held by or on behalf of the plaintiff relevant to an equitable distribution of such property, assets, holdings, and interests pursuant to the dissolution of the marriage of Daniel E. Durkheim and Maria M. Durkheim.
Plaintiff’s duty to disclose is ongoing. The requests made here do not preclude other discovery requests or motions.
Certificate of Service
I, David Greaves, Esquire, hereby certify that on the 27th day of April 1999, I caused a copy of the foregoing Notice of Request for Mandatory Disclosure and Production to be served on plaintiff’s attorney by mailing a copy, first-class, postage prepaid, to:
Ray Kahn, 46 Broadway, New Salem, NA 06555.
Signature of Attorney: David Greaves, Traynor, Hand, Wyzanski
* * *
Re: Valuing a Medical Degree
From: Sophie Diehl
To: David Greaves
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 9:04:32
Subject: Re: Valuing a Medical Degree
4/28/99 9:04 AM
Dear David,
I’m following up on Fiona’s email on valuing a medical degree. I’m so sorry—and so embarrassed. I missed Petrus. I read the briefs last night. I say pretty much the same things, but their fact situation is much stronger. Wife has no family money, no job, no education, and she worked solidly to put her husband through college, medical school, and internship. So maybe, given Ms. Meiklejohn’s situation, it’s different??? I’m feeling stupid.
Sophie
TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI
222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
April 27, 1999
Maria Mather Meiklejohn
404 St. Cloud Street
New Salem, NA 06556
Dear Mia:
I am forwarding to you a letter from Ray Kahn together with a settlement offer from your husband. The offer is unreasonable but not so unreasonable that we can ignore it. Look it over, then call the office for an appointment. We’ll thrash out a response, equally unreasonable but not so unreasonable they can ignore it.
I am also forwarding a letter David Greaves sent Kahn this morning, responding to his smarmy suggestion that the two men put their heads together and come up with an agreement. David is not defending me or my role in the negotiations (“As if you need defending,” he said); he’s defending you the best way he knows how. If he thought for a minute that the two of them could hammer out a satisfactory agreement quickly and privately, he’d do it. Instead, he has written a letter that is at once disingenuous and bullying, and sent with it a fairly harassing set of discovery requests. My bet is they will annoy your husband. Be prepared (#4 especially is a zinger).
Don’t panic at the request for joint custody or the veiled threat of sole custody. Kahn can’t expect his client to win on that point; he is negotiating. (Kahn’s a bit like a pit bull piddling his way down a lane to mark his territory, completely oblivious to the fact that the dog next door is a very large, ill-tempered rottweiler.) He is likely to give it up when we give up our request for the house. To be truthful, I’ve never understood—or appreciated—the so-called art of negotiation whereby each side stakes out an extreme position and then sits down at the table and begins horse trading, the cat for the dog, the Jenny Holzer for the Persian rug, the pension for the 401(k) plan, the child for the house. But men believe in it (it must make losing easier), so we shall have to play along.
Your father wrote to David to let him know he approves of the two-lawyer arrangement. He also said that if we find we need to bring in a third or fourth, he would pay. We don’t think it will ever come to that, but it’s nice to know we can call out the troops if we need them and if you find it acceptable. We will do nothing of the kind without your explicit and informed consent. We may want to employ a private investigator and a forensic accountant—or at least threaten to employ them, if, as David says, it becomes necessary in “a case of this sort.”
I’ve got some ideas about a counteroffer; I look forward to hearing what you think.
Yours,
Anne Sophie Diehl
MARIA MATHER MEIKLEJOHN
404 ST. CLOUD STREET
NEW SALEM, NA 06556
April 29, 1999
Anne Sophie Diehl
Traynor, Hand, Wyzanski
222 Church Street
New Salem, NA 06555
Dear Sophie:
Your letter with the enclosures brought on an attack of nausea. I’m not kidding. I felt a rise in my gorge when I saw the fat envelope with your firm’s name on the flap. I took a Xanax before I opened it. I would never have guessed getting divorced was so mentally disorganizing. I was ready for depression, but this is something else. I feel I’ve lost my underpinnings, literally, like a desk chair that’s thrown a pin and wobbles precariously on its shaft. And yet, I don’t feel as miserable as I thought I would. After that breakdown in your office three weeks ago, I’m more anxious and worried than depressed—and intermittently more optimistic too. Do you know the Emily Dickinson line “Hope is a thing with feathers”? Every so I often I feel a fluttering of hope, hovering nearby, like a hummingbird at my shoulder. I’m also really pissed at Daniel.
I know I shouldn’t go on like this, and I’m truly ashamed of myself, but I don’t know who else to talk to. I’m the first in my crowd to go through a divorce. Cortez upon a peak in Darien. It’s funny, a couple of acquaintances—not real friends, but parents at Jane’s school—have asked me out to lunch, ostensibly to offer support but really, I think, to see what it’s like, being dumped and having to rethink your whole future. I let them know it isn’t pretty. Whatever thoughts they had of getting out of their marriage, they sober up quickly. Then they start worrying that I might be after their husbands. As if.
I know you said Danny’s offer was unreasonable, but did you do the math? He’s offered to pay $24,000 in child support, $14,000 for Jane’s tuition, and $36,000 in alimony, for a total annual outlay of $74,000. If you take away $12,000 for the taxes I’ll have to pay on the alimony and the tuition, which I’ll never see but will go directly to the school, Jane and I would have $48,000 a year. Rent will take at least half that and my car another sixth. Meanwhile, Danny gets to keep $200,000 a year after taxes, probably more, since the alimony is tax-deductible.
Then there’s his request for joint physical custody and the threat perhaps of asking for sole custody. How can he be so cynical about his own child? He hasn’t spent a whole day with Jane since we moved to New Salem—not even when I’ve been in Philadelphia visiting my sister. And don’t say it’s his lawyer telling him what to do. He hired that lawyer. He wanted that kind of advice. What a shithead. If he keeps up that crap, I swear I’ll sic my father on him. I know you think (not without cause) that my father is an anti-Semitic asshole. Well, he is, in his class-bound, hidebound way (though with Daniel, his hatred is personal and aboriginal, going back to their first meeting, for reasons I’ve never fathomed), but he’s more than that. When he’s not being a jerk, he can concentrate wonderfully—and he has a genius for revenge. You wait. If David Greaves gives my father the go-ahead, he’ll dismember him, limb by limb, and Danny won’t know what happened to him until he looks down and sees he’s been cut off at the knees or, better yet, the balls. (I somehow feel uninhibited writing to you. I figure you have to have heard worse.)
I called this morning to see about coming in tomorrow, but they said you had a criminal court date. On Monday, the 3rd, I’m going down to Philadelphia to see my sister. I’ll be back on Tuesday night. I’ve made an appointment to see you on Wednesday morning, the 5th. Unless, it’s an emergency, I’d rather not put off my visit to Cordelia. We always plan our visits ahead of time, and she counts on my coming.
Your discovery order was very thorough. Danny’s going to have a fit over your request for all the records of his NIH grants. There’s always money in a grant for the chief investigator, though I’ve never been quite sure how it was handled. I’ve always assumed it was included in his salary and W-2 forms, but it may not be. Of course, you should hire an accountant and a detective if you think they would be useful. You can hire an enforcer and a voodoo priest if you think they would be useful. I’ll pay. I trust you and David.
Yours,
P.S. April 23 was Jane’s 11th birthday. She was wretched and I was wretched, but her father was as jolly as a Macy’s Santa. He wanted to have a celebratory dinner with her and couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to go. He told her to buck up. I thought she’d burst into tears. As a present, he got her Rollerblades but no helmet, no knee pads, no wrist guards. Let’s hear it for pediatricians.
P.P.S. Where in God’s name did they get the $6 million valuation of my mother’s house? We haven’t had it appraised since she died. It’s worth real money, or at least the land is, but not that much. They are so full of shit. Excuse me.
MRS. DANIEL E. DURKHEIM
245 CLAREMONT AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10 027
May Day
Sophie,
I’ve made a major sociological breakthrough. I’ve discovered the seven stages of divorce, a kind of parallel to the twelve stages of grief. (Have you noticed how many things come in twelves and sevens? With twelves, there are AA’s Steps, the Tribes of Israel, the months of the year. With sevens, there are the Pillars of Wisdom, Snow White’s dwarves, the deadly sins.) Right now, I’m smack in the middle of Fury, No. 4. First, there was Shock, No. 1, which lasted about a week, followed by a month of Despair, No. 2, and two months of Numbness, No. 3. I’m waiting for the last three, or what I imagine them to be: Vengeance, No. 5, Relief, No. 6, and Bliss, No. 7. (I played with the idea of adding an eighth, Self-Pity, but that is so pervasive, I think of it as the Muse
of divorce rather than a stage.) I’m expecting Vengeance to kick in shortly and stick around at least until the settlement signing, which will herald Relief. Bliss is a new house with a brand-new king-sized bed—and the news that Danny’s dick has fallen off. (I’m counting on that voodoo priest for that.)
As always,
Mia
P.S. Don’t you love the monogram? A first-anniversary wedding present. I found it as I was going through some old papers.
Sanity
* * *
From: Sophie Diehl
To: Maggie Pfeiffer
Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 13:23:16
Subject: Sanity 5/2/99 1:23 PM
Dear Maggie—
Thanks for talking me down last weekend. I was a mess. I went home and slept for the next 11 hours. When I woke up, I had a message on my answering machine from Harry. He said he had been called away on an emergency and would be back in New Salem the end of this week, Friday at the latest. I spent all of last weekend reading What Maisie Knew. Have you read it? I thought it was going to be cool and ironic (I don’t know why). Not a bit. It is so cruel, at times I couldn’t go on reading. Maisie’s parents are so awful, so mean, the absolute worst, not counting those who lock their children in closets or put their cigarettes out on their legs. (And I can’t seem to get away from divorce.) But slowly, sanity returned, as it must with James. You have to pay attention to those goddamn sentences.
I won’t do anything about my mother’s letter. I reread my deranged email. You were right. I was jealous. And infantile. Our parents don’t want us to have sex until we’re grown. And we never want them to have it.