Graham v. Graham

592 A.2d 424, 25 Conn. App. 41, 1991 Conn. App. LEXIS 204
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJune 11, 1991
Docket9047
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 592 A.2d 424 (Graham v. Graham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graham v. Graham, 592 A.2d 424, 25 Conn. App. 41, 1991 Conn. App. LEXIS 204 (Colo. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

Heiman, J.

In this dissolution action the defendant claims that the trial court abused its discretion (1) in ordering him to pay periodic alimony, child support, and all costs incurred in connection with his occupancy of the marital home when the total of these payments exceeds his earning capacity, (2) in awarding the plaintiff a disproportionate share of the marital assets in light of its other financial orders and its refusal to return to the defendant his investment in the marital home, and (3) in awarding the plaintiff $15,000 as counsel fees in light of the other financial awards it made to the plaintiff. In addition, the defendant claims, as a nonfinancial issue, that the trial court improperly admitted into evidence a custody study that was previously ordered by the court, because the study contained prejudicial hearsay and because Practice Book § 4791 [43]*43exceeds the constitutional scope of the inherent rulemaking power of the Superior Court. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The facts necessary to a resolution of this matter may be briefly summarized as follows. The parties were married in Yorktown Heights, New York, on August 6, 1978. One child was born of this union on September 16,1984. The plaintiff was thirty-one years of age at the time of the dissolution. She was a high school graduate and had obtained certification in graphic design from the Art Institute of Boston in 1988. She is self-employed as a graphic designer and enjoys good health. She has an earning capacity of $50,000 to $54,000 per year. The defendant was thirty-four years of age at the time of the judgment. After completing high school he attended Franklin Institute of Boston where he obtained an associates degree in electrical engineering. He became employed by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation and, while so employed, obtained a bachelor of arts degree in electrical engineering. Shortly after receiving this degree, he left the employ of PerkinElmer to join the plaintiff in a graphic design business. While at Perkin-Elmer, the defendant demonstrated an earning capacity of $25,000 per year. He enjoys good health.

After a fully contested trial, the trial court expressly found (1) that each of the parties had contributed to the breakdown of the marriage but that the “evidence establishes that the defendant is more culpable in producing that result,” (2) that the defendant has a stock portfolio, acquired through “family largess and his father’s substantial investment talent,” with a value in excess of $200,000, and (3) that the parties were the owners of a marital domicile that had a value of $440,000 with an equity of approximately $248,000 taking into account a mortgage encumbrance of $167,000, and a $25,000 debt to the defendant’s parents. The mar[44]*44ital domicile was the second home that had been purchased by the parties during the course of their marriage. The parties purchased their first home for $104,500. The funding for the purchase of this home came from a loan from the defendant’s parents in the amount of $50,000 ($25,000 of which remains due), $30,000 to $40,000 from the defendant’s stock portfolio, and the balance from a mortgage. That property was sold for $234,500. The parties then purchased a second marital domicile for $375,000. The funding for the purchase of this home was derived from the net proceeds of the sale of the first house, $82,000 from defendant’s stock portfolio, and a $176,000 mortgage.

The trial court entered the following financial orders and orders concerning division of property. The defendant was ordered to pay the sum of $125 per week as support for the minor child. He was also ordered to pay periodic alimony at the rate of $200 per week for a term of five years from the date of the decree, or until the death of the plaintiff, the death of the defendant, the plaintiff’s remarriage and/or the plaintiff’s cohabitation with an unrelated male, whichever shall first occur. In addition, the court ordered that the marital domicile be sold and that 65 percent of the net proceeds be distributed to the plaintiff and 35 percent to the defendant. The net proceeds were to be calculated after deducting the encumbrances, the expenses of the sale, the adjustments, and the repayment of the $25,000 debt due to the defendant’s parents. The trial court also ordered that the defendant was to have exclusive use and occupancy of the marital domicile until the property was sold. The defendant was ordered to pay all costs incurred in connection with his occupancy. He was also ordered to pay the plaintiff’s counsel fees in the amount of $15,000 within twelve months from the date of the court’s decree. The trial court also ordered that the defendant was to retain all right, title and interest [45]*45in his stock portfolio of approximately $200,000. Each party was ordered to refrain from conducting any business under the name of Graham Design within the state of Connecticut, and each party was to retain all accounts, assets and receivables from that business that each then possessed, with certain exceptions.

I

The defendant first claims that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering him to pay alimony, child support and all costs in connection with his occupancy of the marital domicile when these payments exceed his earning capacity, as found by the trial court, by $435 per week. We do not agree.

It is axiomatic that trial courts are vested with broad and liberal discretion in fashioning orders of custody and the type, duration and amount of alimony and support that is proper, applying to each case the standards and guidelines of the General Statutes. Ayers v. Ayers, 172 Conn. 316, 321-22, 374 A.2d 233 (1977). If the trial court in exercising its broad discretion in the award of alimony and support, or in dividing property, considers all of the relevant statutory criteria its award cannot be disturbed unless it appears that such discretion has been abused. Debowsky v. Debowsky, 12 Conn. App. 525, 526, 532 A.2d 591 (1987). An examination of the record discloses that the trial court properly considered all relevant statutory criteria.

The trial court is not required to give equal weight to each of the specified criteria it considers in determining its award, nor is any single criterion preferred over the others. Carpenter v. Carpenter, 188 Conn. 736, 740-41, 453 A.2d 1151 (1982). Where, as here, it is apparent that the trial court considered all mandatory factors in fashioning its orders, we are not permitted to vary the weight that the trial court placed upon the statutory criteria in reaching its decision. Kinney v. [46]*46Kinney, 5 Conn. App. 484, 487, 500 A.2d 569 (1985), cert. denied, 199 Conn. 804, 506 A.2d 146, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 818, 107 S. Ct. 78, 93 L. Ed. 2d 33 (1986).

The defendant appears to relate his dissatisfaction with the trial court’s orders to some veiled claim that earning capacity represents a cap on weekly orders. We do not agree.

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Bluebook (online)
592 A.2d 424, 25 Conn. App. 41, 1991 Conn. App. LEXIS 204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graham-v-graham-connappct-1991.