Barton v. Barton

996 P.2d 1, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 17, 2000 WL 132785
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 7, 2000
Docket98-363
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 996 P.2d 1 (Barton v. Barton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barton v. Barton, 996 P.2d 1, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 17, 2000 WL 132785 (Wyo. 2000).

Opinion

HILL, Justice.

At controversy in this appeal is whether or not the trial court abused its discretion in the division of the parties’ marital property without regard to a prenuptial agreement. Appellant, Peter J. Barton (Husband), also contends that the trial court improperly divided, as marital property, real estate he alleges to be the property of a partnership between himself and Appellee, Sandra L. Barton (Wife), and that the property division was inequitable overall. Finding no abuse of the district court’s discretion and ample evidence supporting its conclusions, we affirm the district court’s decree in all respects.

ISSUES

Husband poses these issues:

I. Whether the trial court committed an error of law, thus abusing its discretion, in arriving at a division of property that did not invoke an antenuptial agreement, did not make specific findings as to why the parties’ antenuptial agreement was not enforced, and did not treat the parties equally with respect to their antenuptial agreement.
II. Whether the trial court committed an error of law, thus abusing its discretion, in arriving at a disposition of partnership property that did not consider the pertinent provisions of Wyoming’s Uniform Partnership Act and specifically Wyoming Statute § 17-21-401(d).
III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in its division of property and liabilities in that its division is so inequitable and unreasonable that reasonable persons could not abide it.

Wife has refined the Husband’s issues into this single question:

Considering the evidence in the light most favorable to Wife, and without considering evidence of Husband in conflict therewith, does the trial court’s disposition of the parties’ property constitute a manifest abuse of discretion, shock the conscience of the Court, and appear so unfair and inequitable that reasonable persons could not abide it?

FACTS

Husband and Wife married in 1986. Shortly before their wedding, they signed a prenuptial agreement providing, among other things, that each would retain the property he or she owned before the marriage. The agreement specifically stated that each spouse waived any interest in property inherited by the other. It also provided that the agreement did not bar either spouse from giving property to the other.

Wife filed a complaint for divorce on May 11, 1998. During a two-day bench trial, the district court heard evidence that the parties owned ten parcels of real property. We will refer to the individual parcels as follows:

(1) West Main Home
(2) West Main Lots
(3) East Main Rental
(4) Hawk Road 6.2 Acres
(5) North 8th Duplexes
(6) Smith Road Lot
(7) North Pointe Duplex
(8) Hawk Road 31 Acres
(9) Herd Property
(10) Sackman Rental

In its Decree of Divorce, the district court held that properties numbered (1) through (6) were the separate property of Husband, and properties numbered (7) and (8) were the separate property of Wife. It held that the Herd and Sackman properties belonged to both Husband and Wife, and directed sale of the properties, with the proceeds to be shared evenly. That division awarded Husband about 60 percent of the dollar value of the real property, while Wife received about 40 percent.

*3 STANDARDS OF REVIEW

We will review the Husband’s claim that a partnership existed according to the following standard:

On conflicting evidence, the question of whether a partnership exists is one for the trier of fact. Pacific General Contractors v. Slate Const. Co., 196 Or. 608, 251 P.2d 454 (1952). A specific factual finding will not be disturbed unless the finding is clearly erroneous or against the great weight of the evidence. Shores v. Lindsey, Wyo., 591 P.2d 895 (1979).

Murphy v. Stevens, 645 P.2d 82, 85 (Wyo.1982). Moreover, in Leavell v. Linn, 884 P.2d 1364 (Wyo.1994), we noted that the best evidence of intent to create a partnership agreement is a written partnership agreement. Further, we acknowledged that the mere facts that parties to an “agreement” call themselves “partners,” and that partnership tax returns were filed, is not determinative of the existence of a partnership but, rather, are only factors that may be considered in such a determination.

The division of marital property is left to the discretion of the district court, and we will not disturb it absent an abuse of that discretion. Bailey v. Bailey, 954 P.2d 962, 965 (Wyo.1998). The legislature has described the breadth of the court’s discretion:

In granting a divorce, the court shall make such disposition of the property of the parties as appears just and equitable, having regard for the respective merits of the parties and the condition in which they will be left by the divorce, the party through whom the property was acquired and the burdens imposed upon the property for the benefit of either party and children.

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-114 (LEXIS 1999). We will find an abuse of that discretion if “the property disposition shocks the conscience of this court and appears so unfair and inequitable that reasonable people could not abide it.” Scherer v. Scherer, 931 P.2d 251, 254 (Wyo.1997); Hedrick v. Hedrick, 902 P.2d 723, 724 (Wyo.1995). In reviewing the trial court’s decision, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the appellee and give the appellee every reasonable inference that we can draw from the record. Hedrick, 902 P.2d at 724.

DISCUSSION

We will first address Husband’s contention that the district court improperly divided the property of a partnership between the parties. The essence of his argument is that two of the parties’ real properties were owned by Husband and Wife as partners and, therefore, are not marital property subject to disposition by the court. The properties in question are the North Pointe Duplex and the Sackman Rental.

The record shows that the parties owned and managed four rental properties, the two claimed to be partnership property, as well as the East Main Rental, and the North 8th Duplexes. The rental income from all of these properties went into a joint checking account owned by both parties.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
996 P.2d 1, 2000 Wyo. LEXIS 17, 2000 WL 132785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barton-v-barton-wyo-2000.