Eddie W. Wilson v. Suzanne L. Wilson.

93 So. 3d 122, 2011 WL 5607834, 2011 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 314
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedNovember 18, 2011
Docket2100540
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 93 So. 3d 122 (Eddie W. Wilson v. Suzanne L. Wilson.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eddie W. Wilson v. Suzanne L. Wilson., 93 So. 3d 122, 2011 WL 5607834, 2011 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 314 (Ala. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Eddie W. Wilson (“the husband”) and Suzanne L. Wilson (“the wife”) were married in 1977. In April 2007, the parties separated. The husband filed for a divorce in July 2007. After a trial in October 2010, at which the only issues for the trial court’s determination were whether 158 shares of stock held in the wife’s name could be considered marital property and, if so, the value of that stock, the trial court entered a judgment awarding the wife the 158 shares of stock and awarding the husband $120,000 in alimony in gross, to be paid over 10 years. After his post-judgment motion was denied, the husband appealed the judgment, arguing that the trial court had improperly admitted certain testimony, had improperly restricted cross-examination, had improperly relied on certain valuation testimony, and that, based on the evidence at trial, the award of $120,000 in alimony in gross was inequitable.

The record reflects the following facts. At the time the parties married, the husband was employed at Landry’s Boat Works. However, he had worked for a short time in 1976 at Sea Pearl Seafood Company, Inc. (“SPS”), a company owned, at that time, by the wife’s parents. The husband was dismissed from his employment with SPS in 1976 after he was accused of stealing money and shrimp from SPS. Apparently at the wife’s request, her father, Joseph Ladnier, hired the husband to work at SPS again in 1985. Since that time, the husband has worked at SPS; he has run the I.Q.F. plant, which individually quick freezes shrimp, since approximately 1995. He earns over $100,000 per year and has consistently received bonuses from SPS. As part of his compensation, the husband is provided a company vehicle; until June 2010, SPS also paid for his fuel. The husband further testified that until the summer of 2010 he had charged his lunch at a certain restaurant to SPS. The wife also works for SPS; she earns approximately $74,000 per year. The testimony at trial reflected that, once the divorce case was over, the husband would lose his job at SPS.

The parties’ separation was prompted, according to the husband, by his wife’s [125]*125controlling nature and his belief that the wife placed her family first in priority. The husband testified that the wife had handled the family finances and that she had placed him on a allowance of $40 per month. The husband had apparently admitted having committed adultery; however, based on the few references to the infidelity at trial, it is unclear whether the admitted infidelity was an affair in which he had been involved in 19.90 or a more recent relationship with a friend of the family into whose home he had moved after the separation of the parties.

In 1990, Joseph Ladnier transferred 137 shares of SPS stock to the wife. She executed a promissory note for $137,000, payable in annual installments of $21,347.35 over 10 years in favor of Joseph Ladnier. At trial, both the wife and Joseph Ladnier testified, however, that the stock was a gift to the wife and that the wife had never paid any money for the stock. Bruce Vest, SPS’s accountant, testified that the wife had not paid Joseph Ladnier for the 137 shares of stock, despite the fact that Joseph Ladnier had listed the annual payments as income on his annual tax returns.

In 2000, Joseph Ladnier and his wife sold their shares of stock to SPS for the price of $4,000 per share. That same year, SPS transferred 21 additional shares of stock to the wife. Although the husband testified that the wife paid for that stock with a check drawn from their joint checking account, the wife testified at trial that she had not paid for the 21 shares of stock. Vest testified that the wife had paid for the 21 shares with a check but, as he recalled, the check had been returned to the wife.

Vest also testified about SPS’s viability as a “going concern.” Vest stated that he had had concerns as to whether SPS was a going concern when he prepared the most recent tax return for the company. However, he testified, as of the date of trial, SPS was a “going concern” because, he said, he had determined that SPS had adequate equity to carry it through the next tax year.

The evidence established that the wife had received several disbursements from SPS after it became an “S” corporation in 2006. In December 2006, the wife received a $100,000 disbursement, which, she testified, she had placed in the parties’ joint checking account and which she used to pay off a home-equity debt and a debt owed to the parties’ home builder; the wife testified that the remaining funds, approximately $20,000, were used to pay regular family expenses. In April 2007, the wife received a $325,000 disbursement. She testified that the entire $325,000 was used to pay both state and federal income taxes. In December 2007, the wife received a disbursement of $50,000; she testified that she gave the entire $50,000 to her parents because they had paid the college expenses of her children. The final distribution to the wife occurred in January 2008; the wife testified that she used the entire $85,000 disbursed to her at that time to pay state and federal income taxes.

The parties both employed experts to determine the value of SPS and its stock. Their valuations differed significantly. Both experts testified at trial.

The husband’s expert, Mark Pawlowski, is a certified public accountant (“CPA”) specializing in business valuation. He has two certifications relating to business valuation: a CVA, or certification as a valuation analyst, and a ABV, or an accreditation in business valuation. Pawlowski testified that there are three approaches to valuing a business: the asset approach, the market approach, and the income approach. He explained that he had chosen, in December 2007, to utilize the in[126]*126come approach when valuing SPS. That approach, he explained, used a capitalization-of-earnings method that required the projection of future earnings. According to Pawlowski, based on the income approach, SPS was worth $6.4 million as of December 2007.

However, Pawlowski explained that SPS’s sales had been decreasing since 2004 and that SPS’s profits had also been deteriorating. Pawlowski questioned how SPS could have made such significant disbursements to its three shareholders in 2008 when it posted an $800,000 loss. Pawlow-ski noted that SPS had offset its production losses by receiving at least $550,000 per year in “Byrd” money, which refers to a tariff imposed on imported seafood that is collected by the federal government and then distributed to domestic seafood producers. In 2008, however, SPS had received no Byrd money. Because of the significant cash-flow issues created by the loss of the Byrd money and the “near impossible” task of estimating ongoing cash flow, Pawlowski said, he reevaluated SPS using the asset method. The asset method, he said, required him to determine the sum of the value of the assets of SPS and to subtract from that sum its liabilities. As of December 31, 2009, Paw-lowski testified, SPS was worth $2.8 million based on the asset method of valuation. Each share of SPS stock was worth approximately $8,860 based on Pawlow-ski’s December 31, 2009, valuation. Paw-lowski adjusted his valuation as of July 31, 2010, based on updated information; he testified that, as of that date, SPS was worth $3.3 million and that each share of SPS was worth $10,541.

The wife’s expert, Jack D. Carney, is a CPA. He submitted two reports valuing SPS.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kean v. Kean
189 So. 3d 61 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2015)
Haynes v. Haynes
109 So. 3d 179 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 So. 3d 122, 2011 WL 5607834, 2011 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eddie-w-wilson-v-suzanne-l-wilson-alacivapp-2011.