Bair v. Bair

214 So. 3d 750, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 3737
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 22, 2017
DocketCase 2D16-272
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 214 So. 3d 750 (Bair v. Bair) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bair v. Bair, 214 So. 3d 750, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 3737 (Fla. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

VILLANTI, Chief Judge.

Daniel Bair (the Husband) appeals various aspects of the final judgment of dissolution of his marriage to Laura Bair (the Wife). Because the trial court made errors of law in determining the value of the marital portion of the Husband’s interest in his nonmarital business, Quality Boats of Clearwater, Inc., and because the trial court improperly applied the supreme court’s decision in Zold v. Zold, 911 So.2d 1222 (Fla. 2005), when determining the Husband’s income, we reverse the portions of the final judgment dealing with equitable distribution, alimony, and child support and remand for further proceedings. 1

Facts

The Husband filed his petition for dissolution in October 2012, after almost fourteen years of marriage. Prior to trial, the parties agreed on a time-sharing schedule with their three minor children and on the allocation of certain expenses relating to the children. They also agreed on the disposition of the marital home and the division of the household furnishings. Howev *753 er, the parties disagreed on the value of the marital portion of the Husband’s non-marital business, the distribution of certain other marital assets and liabilities, and the amount and duration of alimony payable to the Wife.

The trial court held a three-day hearing on these issues in February 2015. At the close of the hearing, the trial court requested that the parties submit -written closing arguments and proposed final judgments, which the parties did during March 2015. However, for reasons not apparent from the record, the trial court did not enter the final judgment of dissolution until October 26, 2015. The Wife filed a timely motion for rehearing, which the trial court granted in part. The court entered a supplemental final judgment addressing the issues on rehearing on December 7, 2015. The Husband then filed this appeal, challenging several aspects of the supplemental final judgment.

Equitable Distribution

The Husband raises two issues relating to the equitable distribution of the parties’ assets and liabilities, both of which have merit. The trial court’s errors on these two issues require us to reverse the equitable distribution scheme and remand for rede-termination of the value of the marital portion of the Husband’s nonmarital business and for redistribution of the parties’ assets and liabilities.

I. Valuation of Quality Boats

The largest asset at issue in this dissolution proceeding was the marital portion of the Husband’s nonmarital interest in his family business, Quality Boats. Testimony at the hearing established that the Husband’s father started Quality Boats when the Husband and his siblings were young children. As teenagers, the Husband and his brother began working at Quality Boats. Over time, they took on more responsibility, and the Husband’s father gifted them small amounts of stock in the company.

When the parties married, the Husband was working full-time for Quality Boats and owned a small share of the company’s stock. When the Husband’s father later passed away, he left the company to his three children—the Husband, his brother, and his sister. The Husband, who sits on the board of directors and owns 47.5% of the company stock, runs the service side of Quality Boats and also deals with all the financial and administrative aspects of the business while his brother, who also sits on the board and owns another 47.5% of the-stock, is in charge of sales. Their sister, who owns the remaining 5% of the stock, is not involved in any day-to-day operations of the company; however, her interests are represented by a third member of the company’s board of directors, who is also the company’s long-time outside accountant. .

During the dissolution proceedings, there was no dispute that the Husband’s ownership interest in Quality Boats was nonmarital; however, there was also no dispute that the Husband’s marital labor had contributed to an increase in the value of Quality Boats during the marriage. This increase in value resulting from the Husband’s marital labor constitutes a marital asset under section 61.075(6)(a)(l)(b), Florida Statutes (2012), which defines “marital assets” to include “[t]he enhancement in value and appreciation of nonmarital assets resulting ... from the efforts of either party during the marriage.” Hence, the trial court was required to determine the amount of the increase in the value of Quality Boats that occurred during the marriage due to the Husband’s marital labor and equitably distribute that increase as a marital asset.

*754 Almost two full days of the three-day final hearing were devoted to testimony from the parties’ respective experts concerning the 2012 value of Quality Boats and the amount of appreciation due to the Husband’s marital labor. 2 Ultimately, the trial court accepted the 2012 valuation of Quality Boats proposed by the Wife’s expert, which-was approximately $1 million more than the valuation proposed by the Husband’s expert. The trial court also accepted certain positions advanced by the Wife’s expert about how to calculate the portion of the increase that was due to the Husband’s marital labor.

In this appeal, the Husband contends that the trial court made five separate errors of law when determining the marital portion of the increased value of Quality Boats. While we agree with the Husband as to only two of these alleged errors, these two errors require us to reverse the valuation and remand for the trial court to redetermine the increased value of Quality Boats, recalculate the marital portion of that increased value, and revise the equitable distribution scheme accordingly.

A. Quality Boats’ Real Property

The Husband first correctly contends that the trial court erred by failing to include the value of the real property owned by Quality Boats in its valuation of the company. This egregious error of law, standing alone, requires us to reverse the equitable distribution scheme.

The evidence at the hearing showed that Quality Boats owns two parcels of real property in Pinellas County which, together with the buildings thereon, comprise the sales and service locations. Despite undisputed evidence that Quality Boats owns this real property, the Wife’s expert refused to include the value of the real property in his valuation of the company because he believed that the value of the real property had changed solely due to passive market forces rather than due to the Husband’s active management. Regardless of whether this is true as a factual matter, the exclusion of this real property from the value of Quality Boats constituted an error of. law for two reasons.

First, excluding a major asset owned by a company from the valuation of that company is legally incorrect because the value of any company comprises all the company’s assets and liabilities. To attempt to value a company while excluding several major assets owned by it, as the trial court did here, is plain error. See, e.g., Randolph v. Randolph, 626 So.2d 342, 343 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993) (noting that the value of a corporation is determined by both the value of all its assets and the amount of its liabilities and that it is error to exclude either one).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
214 So. 3d 750, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 3737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bair-v-bair-fladistctapp-2017.