In re Marriage of Rios

── In re Marriage of Rios ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: May 15, 2026 Category: General NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). 2026 IL App (3d) 230122-U Order filed May 15, 2026 ____________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS THIRD DISTRICT 2023 In re MARRIAGE OF ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ) of the 13th Judicial Circuit, JUANITA RIOS, ) LaSalle County, Illinois, ) Petitioner-Appellant, ) ) Appeal No. 3-23-0122 and ) Circuit No. 18-D-185 ) JESUS RIOS, ) Honorable ) Michelle A. Vescogni, Respondent-Appellee. ) Judge, Presiding. ____________________________________________________________________________ JUSTICE HOLDRIDGE delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Brennan and Davenport concurred in the judgment. ____________________________________________________________________________ ORDER ¶1 Held: Trial court did not err in classifying respondent’s bank account as non-marital property, in denying the petitioner’s dissipation claim, or in denying petitioner’s claim for maintenance. ¶2 Petitioner, Juanita Rios, appeals from a judgment of dissolution of marriage to Respondent, Jesus Rios, arguing the trial court erred in (1) finding Jesus’s bank account to be non-marital property and awarding the funds in that account to Jesus, (2) denying Juanita’s dissipation claim, and (3) failing to award Juanita maintenance. We affirm. ¶3 I. BACKGROUND ¶4 Jesus Rios and Juanita Rios married in 1972 and divorced in 1991. They remarried on September 27, 2010, and Juanita filed a second petition for dissolution of marriage on June 12, 2018. No children were born of the second marriage, but the parties had four children from their first marriage. In the first divorce, Jesus received his railroad pension (as it then existed) and the house at 1876 N. Hennepin Street, LaSalle, while Juanita received a spouse’s share of the railroad pension (as it then existed) and the house at 2423 Rock Street, Peru. ¶5 Jesus worked for the railroad and retired in October of 2011, approximately 13 months after he remarried Juanita. Jesus’ name was placed on the deed of the house in Peru, where they lived during their second marriage. Jesus paid off Juanita’s existing mortgage of approximately $41,000. In September of 2017, Juanita had Jesus removed from their residence through an order of protection. The parties were each 70 years old at the time the second judgment of dissolution of marriage was entered. ¶6 Jesus had a checking account with First Federal Savings Bank (FFSB). This was his only individual checking account, and his railroad pension was deposited into that account. The checking account existed prior to Jesus’ remarriage to Juanita, and Jesus testified at trial that the only funds going into the account were from his railroad pension. The FFSB account was in Jesus’s name only and no other person has ever been on the account. Jesus also testif