Berger v. Berger

648 N.E.2d 378, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 299, 1995 WL 126891
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 22, 1995
Docket49A04-9406-CV-253
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 648 N.E.2d 378 (Berger v. Berger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berger v. Berger, 648 N.E.2d 378, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 299, 1995 WL 126891 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

DARDEN, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The marriage of Barbara T. Berger (Wife) and Richard L. Berger (Husband) was dissolved on February 18, 1994. Wife appeals the trial court's division of the marital estate.

We affirm in part and remand in part.

ISSUES

1. Whether the trial court erred in not awarding Wife all of the money she inherited and the money she received as a gift.
2. Whether the trial court erred by failing to specifically order Husband to pay Wife $5,000.00.
3. Whether the trial court erred by failing to include in the marital estate future payments to Husband in consideration for Husband's agreement not to compete with the buyer of his dental practice.

FACTS

Husband and Wife were married on July 4, 1954. At the time of their divorce, they had been married thirty nine years, and were each sixty years old. They have four emancipated children.

Wife has been employed as an art teacher for twenty-three years and has no plans to retire. Husband's parents were both den *380 tists, and he joined their practice in 1959. In 1976, Husband's parents gave him the practice. Although neither Husband nor Wife could assign a value to the practice as of the time it was given to him, Husband testified that he made more money from his practice during the seventies than he had in recent years. Husband attributed this situation to the changing nature of insurance reimbursement, the increasing number of dentists, and escalating costs.

In 1983, Wife received a gift of $87,000.00 from her parents. When Wife's Mother died in the late 1980's, she left Wife $850,000.00. The gift and inheritance money was placed in joint accounts. Throughout the marriage, Wife showed little, if any, interest in the couple's financial affairs. Instead, she trusted Husband to manage the marital finances.

Prior to their separation, Husband decided to sell his dental practice. The sale was arranged by AFTCO, a company that specializes in the purchase and sale of professional practices, and will be formally closed on April 14, 1995. Buyer will pay Husband a total price of $235,000.00 for the assets of the practice and for Husband's covenant not to compete. Of this sum, Husband owes AFT-CO a $21,000.00 broker fee.

At the final hearing, Wife introduced Joint Exhibit #1 which is a valuation list of the couple's assets and liabilities. Wife placed a value of $213,400.00 on Husband's dental practice (total practice price minus broker fee), while Husband valued the practice at approximately $96,000.00 ($105,750.00 for the assets minus a percentage of the broker fee). The value of the practice was the only valuation Husband and Wife disagreed upon. Thus, Wife valued the net marital estate at $1,316,286.00, while Husband claimed the net marital estate had a value of $1,198,916.00. In its dissolution decree, the trial court dis-

tributed the couple's property, giving Husband his dental practice, and concluded as follows:

The Court finds that the 50-50 presumption has been rebutted due to the acquisition of property through Wife's receipt of inheritance and gift during the course of the marriage. The Court therefore finds that the division of the net marital estate after apportionment of debt is as follows: Wife-54%;, Husband-46%.

R. at 89. The trial court did not enter findings of fact and conclusions of law. 1

DECISION

I. GIFT AND INHERITANCE FUNDS

In order to arrive at the 54%/46% division of the marital estate, Wife assumes the trial court included Husband's valuation of his dental practice, as opposed to Wife's. 2 Wife then concludes that "Husband was awarded 50% of the jointly acquired property, all of the property acquired by him as gift [the dental practice] and 28% of the property acquired by Wife through gift or inheritance." Appellant's brief at 20.

Wife concedes the $87,000.00 she received as a gift and the $350,000.00 she inherited were placed in joint accounts and were, in part, commingled with marital funds. She also acknowledges that she benefitted from the use of the funds, and that Husband's investments increased the value of a portion of the funds. Furthermore, Wife essentially concedes that, true to the trial court's conclusion that Wife rebutted the statutory presumption of a 50/50 split of the marital estate by introducing evidence of money acquired by gift and inheritance, the trial court award *381 ed her a larger portion of these funds than it awarded to husband. 3

However, Wife points out that she received the $87,000.00 when the couple had been married for 29 years, and that she inherited the $350,000.00 when the marriage was 835 years old. Wife testified that she trusted Husband and thought the marriage would last until death. Wife claims she should not have been expected to segregate the money because she never anticipated Husband would "move in with his 82-year old dental hygienist." R. at 183; Appellant's brief at 20. Thus, she claims, the trial court gave "little weight" to the fact that she acquired the money through both gift and inheritance, which "denigrates the concept of marriage." Appellant's brief at 21. Essentially, Wife contends the trial court should have "awarded each party 50 percent of the jointly acquired property and all of the property acquired by each through inheritance or gift, the distribution would be approximately $777,000 to Wife and $429,000 to Husband, or 64 percent to Wife and 836 percent to Husband." Appellant's brief at 19.

We first note that Wife failed to cite to any cases or relevant authority in support of her contention. Her failure to comply with Ind.Appellate Rule 8.8(A)(7) constitutes waiver of this issue for appellate review. Johnson v. Sprague (1998), Ind. App., 614 N.E.2d 585, 588. Waiver notwithstanding, subject to the statutory presumption that an even distribution of marital property is just and reasonable, the disposition of marital assets is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court. Truman v. Truman (1994), Ind.App., 642 N.E.2d 230, 234. In the exercise of that discretion, the trial court may divide the marital property unequally provided the court sets forth its reasons for so doing. Euler v. Euler (1989), Ind.App., 587 N.E.2d 554, 556. We consider only that evidence most favorable to the trial court's disposition of the property. Truman, supra. Moreover, we will presume that the trial court acted properly in dividing marital property, and will reverse a trial court only

where the result reached is clearly against the logic and effect of the cireumstances before the court. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
648 N.E.2d 378, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 299, 1995 WL 126891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berger-v-berger-indctapp-1995.