In Re Marriage of Mahaffey

564 N.E.2d 1300, 206 Ill. App. 3d 859, 151 Ill. Dec. 638, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1809
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 30, 1990
Docket1-88-1734
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 564 N.E.2d 1300 (In Re Marriage of Mahaffey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Marriage of Mahaffey, 564 N.E.2d 1300, 206 Ill. App. 3d 859, 151 Ill. Dec. 638, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1809 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

JUSTICE GORDON

delivered the opinion of the court:

Petitioner, Findley Mahaffey, appeals from the judgment of the trial court dissolving his marriage to respondent, Norma Mahaffey. He contends that the trial court: (1) erred in characterizing a lottery jackpot won during the marriage as marital property, and (2) abused its discretion in dividing the marital property. We affirm.

The evidence presented at trial disclosed that the parties married in April of 1965 and gave birth to two children, Margaret and Paula, who were 19 and 16 years of age, respectively, at the time of the trial. During the marriage, petitioner, who at trial was 49 years of age, worked in a series of unskilled and skilled jobs, earning as much as $21 an hour, and respondent, who was 53 years of age, worked primarily as the family’s homemaker. In 1981, however, respondent began working outside the home as a nursing assistant for a little over the minimum wage after petitioner was injured in an automobile accident and temporarily could not work. Prior to petitioner’s accident in 1981, the parties basically met their expenses with his earnings, but, thereafter, they began falling into debt. By May of 1983, the parties, who were living in a rented house in Matteson, Illinois, remained in debt and had acquired only minimal assets.

In May of 1983, the parties’ lives changed considerably when one of them purchased the winning ticket in the Illinois lottery, worth approximately $3.6 million. Though there was a dispute in the evidence over who purchased the winning ticket and a charge that respondent committed perjury when she testified that she selected the winning numbers based on her children’s birthdays, both of these matters are not dispositive of the issues presented by this appeal. What is significant, however, is the undisputed evidence that the money used to purchase the ticket came from either petitioner’s or respondent’s marital earnings and the right to receive the full lottery payments became irrevocable during the marriage. The single premium annuity contract purchased from Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York (hereinafter Standard Security) by the State of Illinois to pay the lottery jackpot named the Illinois Department of Revenue as the contractholder and petitioner as the annuitant with the right to receive 19 annual payments of $180,484.50. 1 Under the terms of that contract, Standard Security could not, “prior to the completion of the Contract, suspend, revoke, postpone or terminate any payments under this Annuity Contract to the Contractholder or such person or persons as the Contractholder may from time to time direct for any reason, including but not limited to, the threat of or filing of a suit against it, without the prior written approval of the Contractholder or a court order directing payment to another individual(s).” Further, the State of Illinois guaranteed payment of the prize. The only significant limitation on petitioner’s right to the payments is contained in section 13 of the Illinois Lottery Law, which states that he cannot assign that right but further provides:

“[P]ayment of any prize drawn may be paid to the estate of a deceased prize winner, and, except that any person pursuant to an appropriate judicial order may be paid the prize to which the winner is entitled ***.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 120, par. 1163.

Immediately after winning the lottery, both petitioner and respondent quit their respective jobs and jointly began to enjoy the fruit of their good fortune. Upon petitioner’s receipt of the first three installments of the jackpot, he first deposited the checks in the parties’ joint checking or money market accounts and then he and respondent expended all of the money on items such as vacations, gifts to family members, entertainment and clothes, often falling into debt in the process. Additionally, in 1983, the parties used a portion of the first lottery installment to purchase a 1983 Chevrolet camper, with title placed in their joint names, for $35,000 and to fund a $2,000 individual retirement account (hereinafter IRA). In 1984, they used a portion of that year’s lottery installment as a downpayment on a $75,000 house at 4323 Kildare in Matteson for use by petitioner’s mother and stepfather. They also purchased $5,000 worth of furniture for that house. At trial, petitioner testified that he had decided to sell the house and had listed it for sale for $74,900. He further stated that there was a $55,000 mortgage on the house. In 1984, the parties also deposited various amounts of money in accounts set up for their daughters and petitioner’s godchild but later mutually decided to close out the account for the godchild. In 1985, the parties used a portion of that year’s lottery installment to purchase a used 1982 Chrysler automobile for $10,000 and a used truck tractor and semitrailer for $19,000. At the time of trial, they still owned the Chrysler and had a $280 indebtedness on the car. They no longer owned the tractor and trailer, however, because it cost over $40,000 to keep in good repair and petitioner decided to simply turn it over to the party who had loaned him the money to fund these repairs.

In September of 1985, petitioner advised respondent that he wanted a divorce. Thereafter, the parties separated, with respondent taking all the furnishings from their rented marital home and moving to Monticello, Indiana, with their two children.

In October of 1985, petitioner filed his petition for dissolution of marriage, and in December of that year, by agreement, a trial court entered an order directing petitioner to pay $50 a week in child support for his two children. Respondent testified that from the time she left the marital home until the end of 1986 she supported herself and their daughters with money earned working off and on in a seríes of low paying jobs, in addition to the $50-a-week child support payments, food stamps and other governmental relief. During this time, she and her daughters lived in a home owned by her brother. Although her brother charged rent for the home, he agreed to await payment from her. At trial, she testified that she owed $4,200 in unpaid rent to her brother. In 1987, she obtained a court order increasing her child support money to $2,000 a month and she then quit her job and went off governmental relief.

Petitioner meanwhile was continuing to spend the lottery money as quickly as he received it. In 1986, petitioner used a portion of that year’s lottery installment to purchase a farm in Tennessee for $80,000 (hereinafter the Downed farm). In acquiring that property, he made a cash downpayment of $50,000 and mortgaged the remaining amount. At the time of trial, he still owed $24,000 on that mortgage and was listing the property for sale with a broker for $90,000. Additionally, he borrowed $80,000 from the Farm Bureau Bank to renovate a house that was located on the farm and still owed $69,600 on that loan at the time of trial.

In 1987, petitioner used a portion of that year’s lottery installment to purchase another farm in Tennessee for $385,000 (hereinafter the Cooper farm). In acquiring that property, he paid $30,000 as earnest money, used $50,000 of the Downed farm Farm Bureau Bank loan as additional downpayment and obtained a mortgage for the remaining $305,000. At trial, petitioner introduced an appraisal into evidence indicating the value of the Cooper farm to be $378,300.

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Bluebook (online)
564 N.E.2d 1300, 206 Ill. App. 3d 859, 151 Ill. Dec. 638, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 1809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-mahaffey-illappct-1990.