Castaneda v. Castaneda

615 N.E.2d 467, 1993 Ind. App. LEXIS 641, 1993 WL 198766
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 15, 1993
Docket45A03-9208-CV-260
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 615 N.E.2d 467 (Castaneda v. Castaneda) 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
Castaneda v. Castaneda, 615 N.E.2d 467, 1993 Ind. App. LEXIS 641, 1993 WL 198766 (Ind. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

GARRARD, Judge.

This is an appeal from a division of marital property pursuant to a dissolution. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY:

Nancy and Arthur Castaneda were married on October 14, 1978. During the marriage they had three children, Audrey, born May 23,1983, Eric, born April 16,1985, and Elaine, born July 6, 1987. During the first years of their marriage "Nancy worked full time as a medical technician. After the birth of their first child, Nancy began working part-time and remains employed in a part-time capacity to this date.

In February 1982, four years after the parties were married, Nancy’s father died leaving her an interest in his real estate and life insurance proceeds. Arthur was not a beneficiary to this inheritance. Nancy deposited the sums received from her father into two certificates of deposit in her name and never co-mingled these accounts with other funds brought into the marriage. Over the course of 10 years the *469 accounts received high interest rates and were worth $111,762.30 at the time of the dissolution hearing.

On January 28, 1991, Nancy filed a petition for dissolution of her marriage to Arthur alleging irretrievable breakdown in the marriage. Trial was set for March 19, 1992. At trial both parties presented evidence on how Nancy’s inheritance should be divided. Arthur asked to split it according to the statutory fifty/fifty presumption. Nancy requested that these sums be set aside for her. The trial court agreed with Nancy and found that the inheritance was Nancy’s individual property, should be awarded to her, and should not be considered marital assets for purposes of dividing the marital estate. The trial court also ordered Arthur to pay the sum of $271.00 every week for the support of the parties’ minor children.

ISSUES:

Arthur presents three issues for appeal which we restate as follows:

I. Whether the trial court properly included Nancy Castaneda’s inheritance in the “marital pot” to be divided by the trial court.

II. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in setting aside for Nancy the inheritance given to her by her father when it divided the marital assets.

III. Whether the trial court abused its discretion when it did not include the difference between Nancy’s part-time salary and the salary that she would make if she were working full time, when it fashioned its child support order.

DISCUSSION:

Issue I:

Arthur first contends that the trial court did not include Nancy’s inheritance in the “marital pot” to be divided by the trial court. We disagree.

IC 31 — 1—11.5—11(b) provides that “the court shall divide the property of the parties, whether owned by either spouse prior to the marriage, acquired by either spouse in his or her own right after the marriage and prior to the final separation of the parties, or acquired by their joint efforts, in a just and reasonable manner ...” IC 31-1-11.5-2(d) defines “property” as “all the assets of either party or both parties ...” Regardless of its source, therefore, property owned by the parties, including property acquired by inheritance, shall be included in the marital assets and placed within the trial court’s authority to divide the assets. In re Marriage of Davidson (1989), Ind.App., 540 N.E.2d 641, 646. The sums acquired by Nancy through the inheritance left by her father were, therefore, required to be included in the marital pot and available for division by the trial court.

After reviewing the record in this case we are convinced that the trial court did not err.

During two pre-trial conferences, both parties expressly agreed that the sums derived from Nancy’s inheritance should be included in the divisible pot. The only contention at that time was whether the trial court would set aside these sums for Nancy when it made its order dividing the property. Furthermore, no change in this posture was made at the formal hearing held on March 19, 1992. Indeed counsel for both parties indicated that all concerned considered Nancy’s inheritance part of the divisible assets. They disagreed, of course, on how they thought the trial court ought to divide these amounts.

To bolster his argument that the trial court nevertheless excluded the inheritance from the marital pot, Arthur points to language in the trial court’s order that he says indicates that the trial court excluded the inheritance. These passages read as follows:

Petitioner [Nancy] never co-mingled said funds with marital assets nor did she treat these funds as part of the marital pot ...
[The inheritance is] Petitioner’s individual property, and should be awarded to her and should not be considered marital assets for purposes of dividing the marital estate. (R. 258).

*470 We note that these statements were made following a portion of the trial court’s order that listed the inheritance with other items of personal property acquired during the course of the marriage. Rather than a declaration of exclusion, these statements were part of the trial court’s order describing the court’s reasons for awarding these sums to Nancy. While the court may have misspoken in the last sentence, there is no indication that the trial court or the parties departed from their previous understanding concerning the inheritance. As a general rule we presume that the trial court followed the law and made all the proper considerations in making its decision. White v. White (1981), Ind.App., 425 N.E.2d 726, 728. In light of the whole record and without stronger evidence that would lead us to a different conclusion, we décline Arthur’s invitation to read these passages as excluding the inheritance from the pot.

Issue II:

Arthur next contends that the trial court abused its discretion in setting aside for Nancy the inheritance given to her by her father in determining the division of marital assets in this case. We disagree.

The division of marital assets is governed by IC 31-1-11.5-11(c) which provides as follows:

The court shall presume that an equal division of the marital property between the parties is just and reasonable. However, this presumption may be rebutted by a party who presents relevant evidence, including evidence concerning the following factors, that an equal division would not be just and reasonable:
(1) The contribution of each spouse to the acquisition of the property, regardless of whether the contribution was income producing.
(2) The extent to which the property was acquired by each spouse prior to the marriage or through inheritance or gift.
(3) The economic circumstance of each spouse at the time the disposition of the property is to become effective, including the desirability of awarding the family residence or the right to dwell in that

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Bluebook (online)
615 N.E.2d 467, 1993 Ind. App. LEXIS 641, 1993 WL 198766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castaneda-v-castaneda-indctapp-1993.