Goller v. Goller

758 S.W.2d 505, 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 1405, 1988 WL 105233
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 11, 1988
DocketWD 39899
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 758 S.W.2d 505 (Goller v. Goller) 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
Goller v. Goller, 758 S.W.2d 505, 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 1405, 1988 WL 105233 (Mo. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

NUGENT, Presiding Judge.

Dorothy E. Goller appeals from the property disposition of the 1986 judgment dissolving her thirty-four year marriage to David R. Goller.

We reverse and remand with directions.

Dorothy E. and David R. Goller married on June 6, 1953. Mr. Goller had just completed his undergraduate education and entered the military. Mrs. Goller, a high school graduate, worked as a secretary while Mr. Goller was in the service and afterwards while he attended law school. Mr. Goller also worked while attending law *507 school, and the couple lived with his parents.

The Gollers have six children. Mrs. Gol-ler continued to work outside the home after the birth of her first child, but she stopped in 1960 after the arrival of their third child and devoted her time to the duties of child-rearing and homemaking.

Mr. Goller earned substantially all of the family’s income through his law practice and investments. Mrs. Goller did, however, contribute income to the family through the sale of real estate given her by and inherited from her parents.

Mr. Goller’s law practice has thrived, and taxable income from his practice alone has been: in 1981 — $105,880; 1982 — $144,859; 1983 — $171,000; 1984 — $149,000; and 1985 —$187,000. Mrs. Goller receives $331.00 per month from installment payments on a note from the sale of real estate and from rent of a house trailer.

On March 29, 1985, the Gollers separated; Mr. Goller filed for divorce on May 1, 1986. Mrs. Goller answered and cross-billed for dissolution on May 19. She filed for maintenance pendente lite, child support, suit money and attorney’s fees on June 9. At that time two children still lived with Mrs. Goller, Michael, age twenty-three, and Andrea, age twenty and still dependent upon her parents for support. Both Mr. and Mrs. Goller are about fifty-five years old and in good health, although Mrs. Goller underwent surgery for breast cancer in 1980 and has undergone subsequent reconstructive surgeries.

On June 21, the court ordered Mr. Goller to pay $1,670 per month maintenance pen-dente lite, to pay all expenses and indebtedness pertaining to the family home, to provide reasonable maintenance on the house and medical insurance.

The trial court dissolved the marriage on April 3, 1987, and trial concerning division of the marital property, maintenance and child support followed on April 21.

Mrs. Goller requested a division of the assets on approximately a fifty-fifty basis. She suggested that the marital property, with a net worth of about $2,302,761, be divided into equal shares of $1,151,380 either through distribution of property with installment payments or by division of the property.

Mr. Goller proposed to award Mrs. Goller the Central States realty and $520,186.51. He suggested that she sell the family house and invest the money in government bonds. He also suggested that in ten years Mrs. Goller would have social security, medicare and other benefits available to the elderly.

On August 11, the court entered its judgment that the value of the marital property was $2,271,459.24. The court then reduced the value by $311,374. Included in that amount was Mr. Goller’s estimates of past and future income tax liabilities of $126,500 and various debts owed. No actual tax assessments had been made or paid. The court determined that Mrs. Goller should receive property with a net value of $563,-487.27 and that Mr. Goller should receive property with a net value of $1,707,961.78. In addition the court ordered Mr. Goller to make installment payments to Mrs. Goller of $50,000 per year for eight years, beginning on January 1, 1989. The court terminated all temporary orders. On September 23, the court denied Mrs. Goller’s motion for new trial or to amend the judgment. This appeal followed.

On appeal Mrs. Goller contends that the trial court erred in its division of the marital property in that the court gave too much weight to the direct financial contributions of Mr. Goller and thereby failed to take into account or give fair value to her contributions as homemaker and mother, that the court erred in failing to take into account or give adequate weight to the financial circumstances of the parties, that the court erred in terminating all temporary orders pending this appeal, and that the court erred in reducing the marital property by $126,500 for estimated income tax liability because no substantial evidence supports the court’s action.

On review we must affirm the trial court’s decision unless the judgment contravenes the principles of Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30 (Mo.1976) (en banc), or *508 the court abused its discretion. Dardick v. Dardick, 670 S.W.2d 865, 868 (Mo.1984) (en banc). If error exists, we may enter the judgment the trial court should have entered. Turley v. Turley, 640 S.W.2d 473, 476 (Mo.App.1982).

We begin, by noting that both parties agree that no marital misconduct was involved or to be considered in this case.

Mrs. Goller first contends that the trial court erred in its division of marital property. Her award, including installments, amounts to about thirty-six percent of the net marital estate. She argues that this decision goes against the weight of the evidence and that the trial judge abused his discretion in that he gave too much weight to the direct financial contributions of Mr. Goller and thereby failed to take into account or give fair value to her contribution as homemaker and mother for over thirty-four years.

Under § 452.330 1 the court must divide the marital property as the court deems just after considering all relevant factors, including:

(1) The contribution of each spouse to the acquisition of the marital property, including the contribution of a spouse as a homemaker;
(2) The value of the property set apart to each spouse;
(3) The economic circumstances of each spouse at the time the division of property is to become effective, including the desirability of awarding the family home or the right to live therein for reasonable periods to the spouse having custody of any children; and
(4) The conduct of the parties during the marriage.

The statute requires “a fair and equitable division of the marital property in light of the circumstances attending each individual case.” Dardick, supra, at 869.

Mrs. Goller also suggests that the court should not consider the installment payments as part of the division of marital property. Her award without those installments would represent only twenty-five percent of the estate. Installment payments are, however, an approved manner of distributing marital property. See Spicer v. Spicer, 585 S.W.2d 126 (Mo.App.1979); Doyle v. Doyle, mi

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Bluebook (online)
758 S.W.2d 505, 1988 Mo. App. LEXIS 1405, 1988 WL 105233, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goller-v-goller-moctapp-1988.