Camerlingo v. Camerlingo CA4/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 30, 2015
DocketG049709
StatusUnpublished

This text of Camerlingo v. Camerlingo CA4/3 (Camerlingo v. Camerlingo CA4/3) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Camerlingo v. Camerlingo CA4/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Filed 3/30/15 Camerlingo v. Camerlingo CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

MARIE V. CAMERLINGO, G049709 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 30-2012-00588159) v. OPINION MICHAEL CAMERLINGO,

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, David R. Chaffee, Judge. Affirmed as modified, with directions. Donna Bader for Appellant and Defendant. Jarvis, Krieger & Sullivan and Charles T. Spagnola; Law Office of Stuart Miller and Stuart Miller for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * * Michael Camerlingo appeals from a judgment awarding his former spouse Marie Camerlingo $667,500 in damages for breach of a postmarital contract and $750,000 in punitive damages for his fraudulent and oppressive conduct.1 The trial court concluded Michael “essentially stripped away all of [Marie]’s share of the community assets through their approximately 25-year marriage through one scheme after another,” including the postmarital contract. Michael does not dispute he breached the contract, but argues the trial court erred in failing to offset several of his payments to Marie. On the fraud claim, Michael challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court’s conclusion he did not intend to honor his contract with Marie at the time he entered it, and he contends the punitive damages figure is excessive because no evidence showed he had the ability to pay that amount. As we explain, Michael is entitled to an offset of $60,000, but we affirm the judgment in all other respects. I FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND As we explained in In re Marriage of Camerlingo (June 29, 2012, G046377) 2012 WL 2515979 [nonpub. opn.] (Camerlingo I) the litigation between the parties is unusual because it arises from Marie’s claim the parties had only a “sham” divorce. In Camerlingo I, Marie explained “she and Michael ‘initiated a sham uncontested divorce proceeding’ ‘for the foolish reason of helping a relative in Vietnam.’ Specifically, ‘[Michael] and I jointly decided that the divorce would enable me to “marry” a distant cousin in Vietnam and bring him to this country legally. [Michael] and I were both self represented in our divorce proceeding. After the divorce was finalized, it was always our intention to remain living as husband and wife and eventually legally remarry. It was a foolish and unethical decision to help our cousin in Vietnam and we

1 Because the parties share the same last name, we use their first names to avoid confusion and we intend no disrespect in doing so. (In re Marriage of Balcof (2006) 141 Cal.App.4th 1509, 1513, fn. 2 [same].)

2 luckily never completely went through with [it]. However, [i]n July . . . 2007, [Michael] and I were ‘divorced’ but continued to live together as man and wife.’” (Ibid.) The divorce decree incorporated their marital settlement agreement disavowing spousal support, which Marie signed because she believed Michael’s repeated assurances they would remarry. Michael, however, accelerated a pattern of plundering Marie’s share of their assets. In late 2005, before they divorced and while Marie was out of the country, Michael sold the couple’s large, nearly mortgage-free Anaheim Hills home for more than a million dollars, along with all Marie’s property in the home, including her jewelry, clothing, kitchenware, and a “very, very large library” of books. Marie received less than 1% of the proceeds. Michael also claimed to have “lost” her four-carat diamond during this time. In November 2007, after their June 2007 divorce, Michael induced Marie to transfer the remaining $639,000 in her brokerage account to him. According to Marie, at an unspecified point Michael also withdrew all funds from the couple’s joint accounts and transferred them to separate accounts in his name. In early 2008, Michael purchased a home in Corona without Marie’s knowledge and when she discovered his subterfuge, he persuaded her to execute a quitclaim deed relinquishing any interest in the home. He also purchased a home in Baldwin Park without telling her, and he purchased a textile business at the end of 2008. Marie noted Michael “excluded me from ownership of the new business,” but he assured her “all would be corrected upon us legally remarrying,” and he introduced her as his wife to an escrow agent when he bought the business. He also applied for a mortgage on the Corona home and another loan as a “married man,” bolstering Marie’s claim that he continued to hold himself out as her husband in business and family interactions. She cooked and cleaned for him and did his laundry as the couple continued their semblance of married life. Michael capitalized on Marie’s belief they would remarry. In 2008 while Michael secretly had been purchasing or planning to purchase his new business and two

3 new homes, Marie asked him to return her brokerage funds, but he became “very upset” and pushed her “out of the office door.” He agreed in June 2008 to execute a promissory note to her for $500,000, but soon induced her to tear it up. Michael told her, “‘[W]e’re going to be married, but in order for us to do so, you need to show me that you trust me so I want you to tear up the promissory note if you want us to be married again.’ So I did. I tore up the note.” In late 2008, Marie discovered Michael was having an affair with a young woman from Vietnam, but when he assured her he was “just having a little fun,” they reconciled and continued living together as man and wife. In January 2009, Michael opened a small checking account for Marie’s use to pay her living expenses, but he promptly liquidated it without telling her, causing her checks to bounce and leaving her with no money. By May 2009, Marie found Michael “unpredictable” and felt “he and I had to agree to something in writing.” She agreed not to sue him for misappropriating or defrauding her of her share of their assets, and he agreed to pay her sums the two characterized as “support” for Marie. In addition to $80,000 he already had paid, Michael agreed to pay Marie $644,000, consisting of: (1) a lump sum of $140,000 due by June 1, 2009; (2) $30,000 in 12 monthly installments of $2,500 for the 2009 calendar year; (3) $50,000 per year for nine years beginning in December 2010, and (4) $24,000 in the 10th calendar year. The agreement also required Michael to obtain and pay the premiums on a $500,000 life insurance policy with Marie as the sole beneficiary, and to prepare a will and create a trust consisting of all of Michael’s real and personal property, with Marie as the sole beneficiary and their daughter as the sole successor beneficiary. The agreement provided that Michael “shall cause title to all assets to be either held in the name of this trust or in ‘joint tenancy with right of survivorship’ so that [Marie] and [their daughter] are each named as 1/3 owners with [Michael].” The agreement set a June 1, 2009, deadline for Michael to give Marie the original of the will, trust, and title documents.

4 Finally, the agreement also provided for $5,000 in attorney fees if Marie had to sue to enforce it. The parties labeled their agreement as a “Stipulation” and filed it in November 2009 with the family court under the case number for their divorce proceeding. They apparently believed merely filing the document modified their divorce decree waiver of spousal support as calculated and enforced under the Family Code.

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