Heutel v. Heutel

803 S.W.2d 84, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 1801, 1990 WL 205227
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 18, 1990
DocketNos. 57094 & 57119
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 803 S.W.2d 84 (Heutel v. Heutel) 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
Heutel v. Heutel, 803 S.W.2d 84, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 1801, 1990 WL 205227 (Mo. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

PUDLOWSKI, Judge.

On April 21, 1989, the St. Louis County Circuit Court dissolved the marriage of Lee B. Heutel (hereinafter husband) and Doris J. Heutel (hereinafter wife) following a dissolution hearing.

Both husband and wife appeal. Wife raises four points on appeal. Wife contends the court erred in (1) not ordering husband to pay all of her attorneys’ fees; (2) not admitting the contents of Exhibit 74, a contract executed in contemplation of divorce; (3) awarding an insubstantial amount of child support and in ordering it to be paid directly to the minor child; and (4) failing to properly value property in making its distribution. Husband raises one point on appeal. Husband contends the trial court erred in awarding $3,000 a month in maintenance.

The court awarded wife primary custody of the minor child and ordered husband to pay $1,000 a month in child support. After listing in detail the parties’ separate property, the court awarded to wife the marital home; a residential rental property; a vacation home; a home in Mexico, Missouri; four automobiles; several checking accounts; furniture in the marital home; three insurance policies; an IRA account; and any proceeds from seven pending suits. Wife received periodic maintenance in the amount of $3,000 a month. The court also ordered husband to pay wife’s attorneys’ fees in the amount of $26,000.

Husband received two residential rental properties; property in Union, Missouri; two automobiles; several bank accounts; several insurance policies; two Keogh plans; an IRA account; Air Force Reserve retirement credits; his 25% partnership in Macon Medical Center; and his 25% interest in Maplewood Rental Associates. Both husband and wife appeal.

Husband and Wife married April 16, 1954. Wife was nineteen years old at the time of marriage and working as a telephone operator. Husband was twenty-three years old and attending his last year of veterinary school. Husband and wife had two children: LeAnn, emancipated at the time of trial, and Lance, age seventeen at the time of trial.

After completing his study of veterinary medicine, husband joined the Air Force. After military service husband entered medical school. Both husband and wife worked while he attended medical school.

In 1964 husband joined the Macon Medical Clinic (hereinafter Clinic). At the time of dissolution, husband was a partner at the Clinic, holding a 25% interest. Husband also remained active in the Air Force Reserves. Husband’s income from the Clinic was $12,000 a month. His reserve duty income was $576 a month. Husband worked approximately seventy to seventy-five hours a week at the time of trial.

In the late 1970’s or early 1980, wife started the Heutel Institute, a hypnosis and counseling service. Wife’s statement of income and expenses showed income of $400 a month from the Heutel Institute. Wife’s 1984 tax return showed gross income of $34,368 from the Heutel Institute. Her 1985 tax return showed gross income in excess of $26,000. Wife testified that husband had prepared the tax returns and that she signed them without knowledge of their contents. Husband testified he derived the tax return figures from wife's records and that they were accurate. Wife maintained that her income had diminished because she could not devote adequate time to it because of her involvement in legal actions and added responsibilities for her home and child after separation.

Husband and wife testified as to the value of numerous other properties and to the amount of debt they had incurred during the marriage. However, the largest single obligation was for tax years 1986-88, the period following separation and [87]*87when the parties filed individual tax returns. Husband last made his quarterly payments on taxes (as a self-employed individual) in 1981. Husband’s estimate of his monthly expenses was $14,651.54 if he paid back taxes at a scheduled rate of $6,000 per month.

Both parties offered evidence of misconduct. Husband admitted that he signed wife’s name on a number of documents pertaining to the acquisition of farm property titled in joint names.

Husband began a social liaison with a former patient in December 1985 or Spring 1986. Husband and the former patient testified there was no intimacy in their relationship prior to husband and wife’s separation. During the course of the marriage, husband struck wife on several occasions. Husband recalled striking her on two occasions more than sixteen years prior to the trial.

Wife also contended at trial that husband purposely dissipated farm assets. Husband bought farm property to generate more income. Husband testified that flooding caused a loss of crops four consecutive years. In 1985 some of the property was in default and was sold in a foreclosure sale when husband could not afford to make the payments. Another piece of farmland was sold for a profit of $70,000. Most of that profit went toward payment of existing obligations for taxes and their daughter’s education. Husband calculated their total loss from the farm transactions, taking into account the tax benefits, to be $68,678.14. He testified that he did not intend to dissipate assets.

Wife went out socially without husband several nights a week. She was accompanied on two of these occasions by a young man identified as “Paul.” Wife testified she could not recall the last decade in which she and husband had been intimate. Husband testified wife refused to attend social functions associated with his career and was not responsive when he expressed interest in resuming sexual relations.

Husband testified that their relationship worsened in 1983 when wife met James Jennings (hereinafter Jennings), a maintenance man she hired to make repairs and improvements on the vacation cabin. Wife testified she never slept with Jennings. However, Jennings became her confidant and her ally in marital confrontations between husband and wife.

In June 1985, wife suggested that they agree merely to have a “financial arrangement and partnership” and that each do “what they want.” On October 15, 1985, husband left the marital home. On October 30, 1985, wife filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. She amended the petition in June 1988.

After numerous continuances, the trial court entered its decree of dissolution on April 21, 1989. After the dissolution hearing the trial court found inter alia,

12. In consideration of Petitioner’s (Wife’s) age, lack of education, experience, employment income and reasonable expenses, the Court finds that the Petitioner is without adequate means to support herself in any semblance of the style of life acquired and maintained throughout the marriage. Respondent is found to be of adequate means to support himself and to provide support to Petitioner.
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15. During the course of the marriage, the parties acquired a fifty percent (50%) interest in certain farm properties. Petitioner meticulously traced numerous transactions and showed that Respondent signed Petitioner’s name to various joint promissory notes and deeds of trust relating to these farms, without her knowledge. However, Respondent also put these farms in joint names without his wife’s specific knowledge as to each transaction.
The Court finds that Respondent lost money on the various farm transactions but did not intentionally waste, squander or dissipate assets.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
803 S.W.2d 84, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 1801, 1990 WL 205227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heutel-v-heutel-moctapp-1990.