Bullard v. Bullard

18 S.W.3d 134, 2000 Mo. App. LEXIS 714
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 16, 2000
DocketNo. ED 76310
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 18 S.W.3d 134 (Bullard v. Bullard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bullard v. Bullard, 18 S.W.3d 134, 2000 Mo. App. LEXIS 714 (Mo. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

In this dissolution action husband appeals from a judgment entered after a remand with directions to compute and award child support and retroactive child support and to determine if wife had been credited with a statutory exemption. He contends that the judgment goes beyond the scope of the remand because, in addition to making the awards of child support and retroactive child support, it valued and redistributed marital property, made new orders concerning marital debt, and entered a net judgment in wife’s favor of $90,197.96. We agree that these provisions are beyond the scope of remand and are null and void. We reverse those portions of the decree which exceed the scope of remand and remand with directions.

Husband also challenges the use of seven-year-old income figures to calculate the amount of income imputed to him for calculation of child support. Because he did not submit a Form 14, he did not preserve this issue for appeal.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Husband, Steven S. Bullard, and wife, Sharon Briem Bullard, n/k/a Sharon Briem, were married on August 10, 1981. One child, Matthew Scott Bullard, was born of the marriage on April 1, 1985, and was a minor at the time of dissolution.

This is the third appeal in this case. The trial court entered its initial dissolution decree on March 1, 1995. We affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part. Bullard v. Bullard, 929 S.W.2d 942 (Mo.App. E.D.1996) [Bullard I], We reversed the provisions of the decree awarding husband maintenance and instructed the trial court to award no maintenance to husband on remand. Id. at 945. We reversed the provision denying child support and remanded that issue to the trial court with instructions. We remanded for a redivision of marital property, since the trial court’s division included items which were not marital property. However, we rejected wife’s claims that the trial court erred in not giving monetary value to all items of marital property or in failing to consider the relevant factors required by Section 452.330 RSMo (1994). Id. at 945-46.

The trial court conducted a hearing on remand and entered an amended judgment and decree of dissolution on January 28, 1997. It denied husband maintenance as instructed, and found that wife had paid husband $8,250.00 in maintenance after the original decree. It divided the marital property and awarded wife $62,375.00 and property of unknown value and awarded husband $47,297.00 and property of unknown value. It also ordered wife to pay to husband $18,506.00 as an additional share of marital property, but reduced this amount by the $8,250.00 which wife had paid husband as maintenance, resulting in a net payment of $10,256.00. It did not order child support.

Wife appealed on multiple grounds. On appeal we reversed the provision of the decree denying child support and remanded for the trial court to enter judgment ordering husband to pay child support to wife in an amount to be determined after imputing income to husband taking into account husband’s “education, recent work history, occupational qualifications, earnings history when employed, and prevailing job opportunities.” Bullard v. Bullard, 969 S.W.2d 880, 883 (Mo.App. E.D.1998) [Bullard II\. We also instructed the trial court to award retroactive child support in conformity with Section 452.340 RSMo (1994). Id. at 884. We further remanded for the trial court to determine if wife had been credited for statutory exemptions, and if not, to so credit her. Id. at 885.

Wife also challenged • the trial court’s division of property, claiming that the trial court had failed to properly apply Section 452.330, that it had failed to assign values to all of the property, failed to consider husband’s misconduct, and had no basis for finding wife depleted marital assets. We [137]*137denied these claims and affirmed the remaining portions of the decree.

After remand from Bullard II, a new trial judge was assigned to the case who conducted a trial on January 28, 1999. Husband appeared pro se. At trial the trial judge announced that under the mandate he was only going to consider the issues of child support, retroactive child support, and the statutory exception. The court limited evidence to these issues and denied wife’s oral request for a net judgment and oral motion for judgment. At the conclusion of the testimony, the court said it was its intention to rule on only three issues: child support, retroactive child support, and the exemption. It invited the parties to submit proposed findings and conclusions on these issues. Wife filed a proposed second amended judgment.

On March 10, 1999 the trial court entered a second amended judgment and decree of dissolution. In accord with the mandate, the trial court found husband’s monthly child support obligation under Rule 88.01 was $525.18 from May, 1992 through December, 1996, $503.81 from January, 1997 through January, 1999, and $580.00 thereafter. The court awarded wife retroactive child support of $63,900.33 and prospective child support of $580.00 per month. However, the trial court did not make findings or an order with respect to the statutory exemption.

Further, the second amended judgment addressed matters which were not covered by the mandate and which had been determined differently in the prior judgments and affirmed. The second amended judgment contained new findings with respect to marital property and the parties’ financial obligations to each other. The court gave values to the Lake St. Louis property and the MCI stock. It awarded all of the MCI stock to wife, with a credit for one-half the value to husband to be offset against his child support obligation. It showed a total award of $72,270.00 in marital property to wife and $93,343.00 in marital property to husband. It gave wife a credit of $2,214.63 which was the amount husband had garnished from wife’s account in partial satisfaction of the $10,256.00 judgment the trial court had awarded him as an additional share of marital property in the amended decree. The court also made findings with respect to each party’s payments of marital debt and awarded wife a credit of $8,441.00 for her payments of marital debt and ordered the parties to pay one-half of the balance of the debt.

After making these findings and awards, the court then computed a net judgment as follows:

35. The Court, after deducting the credits set forth above, to wit:

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Total Credits due Wife: $103,878.96
from the value of the shares of MCI Communications stock Wife is required to pay to Husband ($9,896), plus interest thereon, for a total sum due Husband of $13,681, Wife is entitled to, and is hereby awarded against Husband a net Judgment of $90,197.96. 36. This Judgment in favor of Wife is a net Judgment and because credit has been given to Husband for the value of the MCI Communications stock, the MCI Communications stock shall remain the property of Wife.

DISCUSSION

I. Scope of Second Amended Judgment

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 S.W.3d 134, 2000 Mo. App. LEXIS 714, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bullard-v-bullard-moctapp-2000.