In re Maldonado

432 P.3d 1154, 294 Or. App. 583
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedOctober 31, 2018
DocketA163430
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 432 P.3d 1154 (In re Maldonado) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Maldonado, 432 P.3d 1154, 294 Or. App. 583 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

TOOKEY, J.

*585Husband appeals from a judgment dissolving the parties' marriage, contending that the trial court erred in its award of spousal support and its division of marital property. We write to address only husband's contentions regarding the property division. Because the record reflects various legal errors by the trial court, we reverse the property division portion of the judgment and remand for reconsideration.

Husband requests de novo review; however, this is not an exceptional case, and we therefore decline to exercise our discretion to review de novo . See ORS 19.415(3)(b) (court has discretion to apply de novo review in equitable actions); ORAP 5.40(8)(c) (court will exercise discretion to review de novo only in exceptional cases). Thus, in reviewing the judgment, we are bound by the trial court's findings that are supported by any evidence in the record. Kaptur and Kaptur , 256 Or. App. 591, 596 n. 2, 302 P.3d 819 (2013). We state the facts in a manner consistent with the trial court's express and implied findings, supplemented with uncontroverted information from the record. Stuart and Ely , 259 Or. App. 175, 177, 313 P.3d 317 (2013).

The parties lived together for eleven years before they married in July 2011. The dissolution trial began on March 8, 2016. The trial court issued a letter opinion on June 27, 2016, and entered a judgment of dissolution on October 13, 2016. During the parties' five year marriage, they had a five-month separation from November 2012 to April 2013, and a two-year separation from July 16, 2014, to the date of dissolution. The trial court found the duration of the marriage to be two and a half years. At the time of trial, husband was 58 years old and wife was 52. There are no children of the marriage.

Husband came into the relationship with some assets, including real property, $8,000 in cash, and $3,000 in coins. Wife came into the relationship with an IRA valued at approximately $41,000. At the time of the marriage, husband owned three investment properties, one investment account, and two bank accounts, as well as the cash and coins. Wife continued to own her IRA, then valued at *586approximately $68,000. From the beginning of their relationship, the parties agreed not to commingle their finances or assets. Thus, they did not acquire or own any joint property.

Husband is a builder, in the business of buying homes to remodel and sell. Throughout the period of cohabitation and marriage, the parties lived in homes that husband was remodeling to resell. The parties lived primarily off of husband's earnings. Wife earned a small amount of income from work outside the home and occasionally contributed to payment of household expenses.

*1157During the first five years of the parties' cohabitation, husband also owned a cabinetry business. Wife worked part-time in the cabinetry business for two years as a paid employee. Also during the years of cohabitation, husband did remodeling for private clients. Wife testified that she made unpaid contributions to that business, by meeting with clients, helping husband shop for supplies, doing yard work and clean-up, and helping to rip out carpets, floors, and fireplaces.

During the marriage, wife focused primarily on household responsibilities and yard work, and continued to provide some unpaid help in the business. During the parties' second period of separation, husband paid wife temporary support and continued to pay wife's living expenses, including a mortgage, utilities, and insurance.

We set out the relevant legal principles. ORS 107.105(1)(f) provides:

"Whenever the court renders a judgment of marital *** dissolution ***, the court may provide in the judgment:
"* * * * *
"(f) For the division or other disposition between the parties of the real or personal property, or both, of either or both of the parties as may be just and proper in all the circumstances. In determining the division of property under this paragraph, the following apply:
"* * * * *
*587"(C) Except as provided in subparagraph (D) of this paragraph, there is a rebuttable presumption that both parties have contributed equally to the acquisition of property during the marriage, whether such property is jointly or separately held."

Under ORS 107.105(1)(f), there are two classes of property subject to a dissolution court's dispositional authority. Pierson and Pierson , 294 Or. 117, 121-22, 653 P.2d 1258 (1982). "Marital property" is all the property owned by the parties at the time of dissolution, "and can include property owned prior to marriage." Id . ; Massee and Massee , 328 Or. 195, 201 n. 2, 970 P.2d 1203 (1999) (citing Pierson ). Under ORS 107.105(1)(f), the dissolution court is required to make a distribution of marital property that is "just and proper in all the circumstances."

Another class of marital property, "marital assets" are properties acquired by the parties during the marriage, and does not include "assets brought into the marriage by either spouse." Pierson , 294 Or. at 121-22, 653 P.2d 1258.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
432 P.3d 1154, 294 Or. App. 583, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-maldonado-orctapp-2018.