Beener v. Beener

619 A.2d 713, 422 Pa. Super. 351, 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4110
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 2, 1992
DocketNos. 2005, 2086
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 619 A.2d 713 (Beener v. Beener) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beener v. Beener, 619 A.2d 713, 422 Pa. Super. 351, 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4110 (Pa. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

HESTER, Judge:

This is an appeal and cross appeal from a final decree in equitable distribution entered October 18, 1991. Alda Beener instituted this action against her now deceased husband, Edward, by filing a complaint in divorce on August 5, 1981. [354]*354George Beener, as executor of the estate of his deceased father, Edward, appealed from the decree, and Alda filed a cross appeal. We conclude that the issue raised by George regarding equalization of royalty payments is meritless, and we affirm the trial court’s decision in that regard. However, we conclude that both issues raised in Alda’s cross appeal are meritorious. Since the trial court erred in altering the amount payable to Alda for stock that was stipulated to have been marital property, we reinstate the master’s award as to the payment to be made to Alda for her interest in the stock. We also reverse the trial court’s determination that Alda is not entitled to a return on her interest in certain equipment that was in the sole possession of Edward and his successor in interest, George, following the parties’ separation. We reverse with directions that the trial court determine a fair return for Alda’s interest in the equipment for the period of time that she was out of possession of the equipment, as outlined in this decision.

The facts relevant to this appeal are as follows. During the early period of their marriage, Alda and Edward worked together in farming, lumbering, and constructing a residence between Rockwood, Maryland, and New Centerville, Pennsylvania. Subsequently, they commenced a coal mining business in the name of Beener Coal Company (“Beener”). During the operation of these various business enterprises, the parties acquired, prior to separation, numerous parcels of real estate and various pieces of farming and coal mining equipment.

After the divorce complaint was filed, both parties filed affidavits of consent, and a final decree in divorce was entered September 24, 1984. Edward died in 1988. The ensuing years were consumed with litigation regarding equitable distribution, which was complicated due to the parties’ significant assets and Edward’s partial ownership of Beener. It also was delayed pending the outcome of two separate civil actions. Alda owned no shares of Beener, which was owned by Edward and the parties’ six children. Each of the seven shareholders owned forty shares of stock. Ownership of the stock was the subject of the first independent civil action, which was institut[355]*355ed against Edward and three of the parties’ children. The plaintiffs in that action were the parties’ other three children, who invoked their minority shareholder rights against the defendants. In that case, the trial court determined that Edward, in collusion with the three children siding with him in the divorce, had usurped corporate opportunities from Beener by setting up independent companies which were owned solely by Edward and the three children who sided with him in the divorce. The court in that action ordered the defendants to purchase the stock of the three plaintiffs and then placed a value on the stock.

Also relevant to our disposition of this appeal are two contracts entered by Alda and Edward with Beener in 1974. One was a machine rental agreement and the other a coal lease extraction royalty agreement. Both agreements were entered prior to separation. One required Beener to pay rent to Alda and Edward for coal mining equipment owned by them and leased to Beener. The other required Beener to pay royalties to Alda and Edward for coal extracted from real property owned by them and which had been leased by them to the corporation.

Under the coal royalty agreement with Beener, royalties were paid until 1978 to Edward and deposited in a joint bank account owned by both Alda and Edward. In 1978, Alda requested, and Edward agreed, that the royalty checks be issued separately. Thenceforth, one-half of the royalties was paid directly to Alda and one-half to Edward. From 1978 to 1988, Alda and Edward each earned royalties of $2,409,208.66. Even though Edward, together with the three children who sided with him over operation of Beener, retained control over Beener, Beener paid Edward only $915,606.74 of those royalties.

After this divorce action was instituted, Beener ceased paying Alda the full amount of the royalties required under the terms of the royalty agreement. Alda then successfully instituted a separate civil action against Beener to force it to pay the deficit royalty payments to her. She eventually [356]*356received from Beener $2,139,892.11 of the 1978-88 royalties due her.

A separate civil suit as to the mining equipment that was in Alda and Edward’s name also was instituted. The agreement between Beener, as lessee, and Alda and Edward, as owners of the equipment, provided that Beener could change the rent payable at any time. After the divorce action was instituted, Edward, through his and his children’s control over Beener, unilaterally stopped the corporation’s rental payments. In the civil action, the trial court determined that the cessation of rental was valid under the agreement since that agreement did give Beener the right to set rental. The court specifically noted, however, that the action being determined by it was not a suit by Alda against Edward for violation of or damage to her interests in the equipment as between them.

In the present action, a master was appointed to hear equitable distribution matters on February 17, 1989, and numerous hearings were scheduled throughout the spring and summer of 1989. Neither party had filed an inventory, but they had agreed that any asset owned by either party, including the forty shares of Beener owned by Edward, was to be considered a marital asset and divided by fifty percent. By the time of the hearings, they had narrowed the assets to be valued to twelve. The master was to decide the value of each asset.

We first discuss the proceedings which relate to the royalty equalization argument, which is raised by George in his appeal. During the hearings, no one discussed the coal royalty payments, and George did not present any evidence about the royalty payments received by Alda. Further, George did not claim before the master that post-separation royalty payments received by Alda either were marital assets or that they were subject to the agreement to divide all assets in half. The issue of the unequal royalty payments was raised only in the exceptions filed to the master’s report. In those exceptions, George asserted that all royalty payments received by Alda were marital property and that Alda owed George one-half of [357]*357the royalty payments which she received from 1978 to the date of the hearings.

The trial court denied this exception for two reasons. First, it concluded that the issue was not preserved properly. The court observed that at the first master’s hearing held on May 22, 1989, the parties had agreed that the master was to value twelve items. The royalty payments received by Alda were not included in those twelve. The trial court determined that George was not permitted to raise the issue after all hearings had been held and after the master’s report had been filed.

The trial court also concluded that the 1978-88 royalty payments received by Alda were not marital property and were not subject to the agreement to divide everything equally. The court held that the royalty agreement had been divided effectively by the parties in 1978 when they agreed to accept separate, equal checks from Beener for the coal royalties.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
619 A.2d 713, 422 Pa. Super. 351, 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beener-v-beener-pasuperct-1992.