Blackman v. Blackman

131 A.D.2d 801, 517 N.Y.S.2d 167, 1987 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 48250
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 29, 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 131 A.D.2d 801 (Blackman v. Blackman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blackman v. Blackman, 131 A.D.2d 801, 517 N.Y.S.2d 167, 1987 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 48250 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

In a matrimonial action, the defendant wife appeals (1) from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Burke, J.), entered August 27, 1986, as, inter alia, (a) directed the sale of the marital residence, (b) awarded maintenance for only five years in the amount of only $60 per week, and awarded child support in the amount of only $70 per week, (c) ordered that the value of the parties’ automobile and certificate of deposit be paid to the plaintiff husband out of the proceeds of the sale of the marital residence, (d) ordered that the amount due retroactively for maintenance and child support be paid out of the sale proceeds of the marital residence and be retroactive only from July 11, 1986 instead of May 10, 1985, (e) equally divided the household effects, statues and furniture in the marital residence pursuant to the parties’ stipulation, (f) failed to direct the husband to maintain medical insurance for the benefit of his daughter, to maintain life insurance for the benefit of the wife and daughter, and to pay for the daughter’s private school tuition, and (g) failed to award the wife a portion of the husband’s retroactive pay; (2) from an order of the same court, dated November 13, 1986, which granted the plaintiff husband’s motion to vacate an [802]*802income execution served upon him by her; and (3) from an order of the same court, entered November 14, 1986, which denied the wife’s motion to set aside the judgment of divorce on the ground of newly discovered evidence, fraud, misrepresentation and incompetence of counsel.

Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law and the facts, by (1) deleting subdivisions "(3)” and "(4)” from the fifth decretal paragraph thereof, and (2) adding the following decretal paragraphs thereto:

"ordered and adjudged that (A) the defendant pay to the plaintiff, as a distributive award, the sum of $2,250 to equalize (i) the defendant’s appropriation of the $500 balance formerly held jointly by the parties in a certificate of deposit at European American Bank, and (ii) the defendant’s retention of the parties’ 1982 Buick Skylark valued at $4,000, and (B) the plaintiff pay to the defendant the sum of $3,355 representing the sum retroactively due for maintenance and child support; and it is further,

"ordered and adjudged that the plaintiff maintain the existing medical coverage for the parties’ child.”; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements; and it is further,

Ordered that the order dated November 13, 1986, which granted the plaintiff husband’s motion for vacatur of the income execution, is reversed, on the law, without costs or disbursements, and the motion is denied; and it is further,

Ordered that the order entered November 14, 1986, which denied the defendant wife’s motion to vacate the judgment of divorce, is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

The parties were married on June 23, 1973, and had one child, born on March 21, 1978. Sometime in March 1985, the plaintiff husband moved out of the marital home in East Farmingdale, New York. The wife cashed the parties’ joint certificate of deposit in the amount of $500. The husband took the parties’ 1984 Mazda pickup truck, which was subsequently stolen, while the wife retained their 1982 Buick Skylark, which was worth $4,000. Initially, the wife instituted a separation action in the Supreme Court, Suffolk County. After the husband brought an action for divorce in the Supreme Court, Nassau County, in which the wife counterclaimed, the wife abandoned her separation action. However, she was granted pendente lite relief of $40 per week in maintenance and $35 per week in child support by order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Tanenbaum, J.), dated May 23, 1985.

[803]*803Following a trial on the Nassau County action for divorce, in which the husband withdrew his complaint for divorce in favor of the wife’s counterclaim, and after the parties entered into a stipulation providing for an equal division of the parties’ furniture and household effects and the proceeds from any court-ordered sale of the marital residence, the trial court found that (1) the wife was not entitled to an equitable share of the retroactive pay received by the husband because there was no evidence that the cash remained on hand or that it was converted into an asset, (2) the marital residence must be sold within 90 days to provide for the parties’ future living expenses and to pay off the marital debts, (3) the wife owed the husband $4,500 for her retention of the parties’ Buick automobile, valued at $4,000, and for her appropriation of their jointly held certificate of deposit in the amount of $500; the $4,500 was to be paid to him out of the net proceeds from the sale of the marital residence, and (4) the husband owed the wife $3,355 in retroactive maintenance and child support, which was also payable out of the net proceeds of the marital residence. Furthermore, the trial court ordered that the husband pay the wife $60 per week maintenance for a period of five years, and $70 per week in child support, but refused to provide for the payment of the child’s continued parochial school education.

At the trial, it was determined that the wife had been employed by European American Bank for 15 years. She originally worked full time and was placed in a career management program but had limited her employment to part time upon the birth of the parties’ child. Her 1985 salary was $7,809. The husband had been employed by the City of New York as a correction officer for 25 months prior to the time of trial. His projected 1986 salary was $30,732.

Furthermore, it was adduced at the trial that the monthly maintenance costs of the marital residence were approximately $670 to $691, and that rentals in the Farmingdale area for two-bedroom apartments were about $750 to $800 per month.

Finally, the parties incurred marital debts totaling $4,100 for car loans and an installment credit loan for furniture.

The trial court properly ordered the sale of the marital residence in order to provide for the future living expenses of the parties and to satisfy their marital debts. Even though exclusive possession of the marital residence is usually granted to the spouse who has custody of the minor children [804]*804of the marriage (see, Patti v Patti, 99 AD2d 772; Damiano v Damiano, 94 AD2d 132), this need of the custodial parent to occupy the marital residence is weighed against the financial need of the parties for a quick sale of the marital residence (cf., Hillmann v Hillmann, 109 AD2d 777; Knapp v Knapp, 105 AD2d 1019). The evidence adduced at the trial supports the court’s determination that the parties’ salaries were insufficient to meet their living expenses and that the marital residence offered the only available source of capital by which they could meet these expenses and pay off their marital debts. Moreover, the determination was proper even though the wife would be required to assume a greater rental expense than the cost of maintaining the marital residence; the net effect of the sale of the marital residence would be to provide funds upon which each of the parties could live comfortably.

Moreover, the trial court expressly outlined the factors it considered in determining its awards of maintenance and child support as required by Domestic Relations Law § 236 (B) (5), (6) and (7).

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Bluebook (online)
131 A.D.2d 801, 517 N.Y.S.2d 167, 1987 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 48250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blackman-v-blackman-nyappdiv-1987.