Henin v. Henin

601 A.2d 550, 26 Conn. App. 386, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 19
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJanuary 14, 1992
Docket9660
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 601 A.2d 550 (Henin v. Henin) 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
Henin v. Henin, 601 A.2d 550, 26 Conn. App. 386, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 19 (Colo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Dupont, C. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered in a dissolution of marriage action. The issues are whether the trial court’s allegedly improper conclusion regarding the cause of the breakdown of the marriage adversely affected the financial awards and whether the trial court abused its discretion in awarding the defendant time limited alimony. The plaintiff’s cross appeal questions whether the trial court’s order requiring payment to the defendant of a promissory note upon the plaintiff’s remarriage violates the plaintiff’s fundamental constitutional right to marry.

The parties were married in August of 1969 and have four minor children who ranged in age from four to sixteen at the time of the dissolution. The plaintiff was forty-three years old and a dentist with his own practice. The defendant was forty-one years old, with a [388]*388bachelor of fine arts degree in fashion merchandizing. She was not employed outside of the home for most of her married life and at the time of the dissolution was working as a supermarket bagger.

In 1983, the defendant’s mental state began to deteriorate. She refused to seek psychiatric treatment despite the advice of pastoral and other counselors. The defendant’s illness eventually resulted in two referrals in 1987 to the department of children and youth services about her behavior with the children.

In May, 1987, the plaintiff filed a complaint seeking a legal separation, later changing the relief sought to a dissolution of marriage. During the litigation, the plaintiff obtained a restraining order forcing the defendant to vacate the marital residence. Also, counsel for the children sought and received restraining orders preventing the defendant from exercising visitation with the minor children except under controlled conditions.

Prior to trial, the plaintiff’s motion for a psychiatric examination of the defendant was granted. When the defendant failed to appear for the scheduled examination, she was held in contempt. A capias was issued and the defendant subsequently was examined and evaluated in compliance with the original court order. The defendant was diagnosed with chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia and was subsequently hospitalized at a psychiatric hospital for sixty days. During the course of the marital litigation, a guardian ad litem and conservator were appointed for the defendant.

The trial court dissolved the parties’ marriage and awarded custody of the minor children to the plaintiff with limited visitation rights provided to the defendant. The court ordered the defendant to convey her one-half interest in the marital residence to the plaintiff and ordered him to execute a $100,000 mortgage deed [389]*389and note to her, bearing 7 percent simple interest, payable at such time as the children no longer used the home as a residence, upon the plaintiffs death or remarriage, or on April 18, 2004, whichever occurs first. The majority of the parties’ other assets was awarded to the plaintiff. The defendant was awarded $400 per week in periodic alimony to terminate upon the earliest of her death, remarriage, or April 12,2004.1 Periodic alimony was made nonmodifiable as to its thirteen year duration. That term was timed to coincide with the maturation of the mortgage note. The plaintiff was also ordered to continue providing health insurance coverage for the defendant for a three year period. In addition, he was ordered to maintain a declining balance term life insurance policy in the original amount of $200,000 for the benefit of the defendant for the period during which he is obligated to pay alimony. Finally, the plaintiff was ordered to pay a portion of the defendant’s counsel fees, guardian ad litem’s fees, and a portion of the children’s guardian ad litem’s fees.

The defendant contests the trial court’s finding that the breakdown of the marriage was caused by her failure to seek medical treatment and her consequent behavior, claiming that the finding adversely affected the financial awards.

General Statutes §§ 46b-81 (c) and 46b-82 require the trial court to consider several factors in crafting its financial orders, including the cause for the dissolution. The defendant argues that our decision in Roach v. Roach, 20 Conn. App. 500, 507, 568 A.2d 1037 (1990), would here preclude the trial court from finding that behavior caused by mental illness can be the cause of a marital dissolution and further argues that, even if [390]*390such a finding were permissible, the testimony did not support the trial court’s conclusion.

In Roach v. Roach, supra, we held that the demeanor of a party while testifying during a dissolution action cannot be converted into the cause of a breakdown of the marriage. Of necessity, the cause of a dissolution must already have occurred prior to trial. The facts of Roach v. Roach, supra, are dissimilar to the present case. The trial court’s finding here was that the breakdown of the marriage was caused by the defendant’s failure to seek medical treatment. That finding was based on testimony relating to the defendant’s condition and behavior from 1983 to the time of trial, and was unrelated to the defendant’s mental condition as it manifested itself during trial.

In Breen v. Breen, 18 Conn. App. 166, 167-68, 557 A.2d 140 (1989), we declined to disturb the trial court’s finding that the plaintiff’s failure to attempt reconciliation was a major factor in the breakdown of the marriage. Sunbury v. Sunbury, 13 Conn. App. 651, 538 A.2d 1082 (1988), rev’d on other grounds, 210 Conn. 170, 553 A.2d 612 (1989), upheld the trial court’s finding that a party who had suffered emotional trauma as a result of a child’s death and had thereafter increased her alcohol consumption and become abusive was more at fault in the marital breakup than her husband. A finding that a party’s health problem, such as alcoholism, was the precipitating cause of a breakdown of a marriage need not be disturbed, although the “voluntary” resumption of the use of alcohol cannot be the basis of the termination of a periodic alimony award. McPhee v. McPhee, 186 Conn. 167, 176-77, 440 A.2d 274 (1982). The teaching oí Breen, Sunbury and McPhee is that a trial court enjoys a wide latitude in the type of finding it may make as to the cause of the dissolution. We conclude, therefore, that a trial court [391]*391may find that a party’s mental condition and consequent behavior was the cause of a marital dissolution.

We must next determine whether the defendant correctly argues that the evidence at trial did not support the court’s finding. For this court to conclude that the trial court abused its discretion, we must determine that the trial court could not reasonably conclude as it did. Sweet v. Sweet, 190 Conn. 657, 664, 462 A.2d 1031 (1983); Trivelli v. Trivelli, 5 Conn. App. 488, 490, 500 A.2d 244 (1985).

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Bluebook (online)
601 A.2d 550, 26 Conn. App. 386, 1992 Conn. App. LEXIS 19, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henin-v-henin-connappct-1992.