In Re Marriage of Malters

478 N.E.2d 1068, 133 Ill. App. 3d 168, 88 Ill. Dec. 460, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 1938
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 7, 1985
Docket84-0214
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 478 N.E.2d 1068 (In Re Marriage of Malters) 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 Malters, 478 N.E.2d 1068, 133 Ill. App. 3d 168, 88 Ill. Dec. 460, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 1938 (Ill. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

JUSTICE PERLIN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Respondent, Edward H. Halters (Edward), appeals from the distribution of property and child support orders entered by the trial court in dissolution of marriage proceedings. Edward and Penelope Halters (Penelope) were married on Harch 28, 1967, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following their marriage, they resided at 25 Brinker Road in Barrington. 1 It was Penelope’s first marriage. Edward had been married previously and had three sons from his first marriage who resided elsewhere. Penelope and Edward’s marriage produced four children, three of whom were living at the time of the dissolution.

On April 28, 1983, a judgment of dissolution was entered and custody of the couple’s two sons, aged 14 and 10, was awarded to Edward. Custody of the couple’s daughter, Penelope Ann, aged 6, was awarded to Penelope. On October 20, 1983, the trial court entered an order distributing the marital assets and awarding Penelope child support. It is from this order that Edward now appeals.

On appeal, Edward contends that the trial court erred: (1) in finding the Brinker Road residence to be marital property, since it was acquired by Edward “prior to the marriage”; (2) in finding that property located in Hontana was marital property when that property was allegedly obtained “in exchange” for Edward’s nonmarital property; (3) in improperly valuing the parties’ assets and in subsequently awarding Penelope an inequitably large share of marital property; and (4) in ordering child support payments without a separate hearing on that issue.

At the hearing on the valuation and distribution of marital property, Edward testified to the following:

He was a physician and surgeon, licensed to practice medicine in Illinois.

In 1965, prior to his marriage to Penelope, Edward, in his own name, purchased a three-flat apartment building in Berkeley, Illinois. He lived in one apartment and rented the others. In 1967, he purchased the Brinker Road property “as an investment.” Title thereto was placed in trust, with Edward as the sole beneficiary. To make the down payment, Edward borrowed $5,000 from “a friend” 2 and used $5,000 of “his own funds.” 3 After renting the house for a time and applying the rental income to the mortgage payments, he moved into the house alone. Penelope did not contribute to the initial down payment nor to any mortgage payments on the house. After their marriage in 1967, Penelope moved into the house with him. The parties continued to live there with their children until Penelope left in 1979.

After Penelope left in 1979, Edward made extensive additions and repairs to the Brinker Road property. He added a kitchen, a living room, an alarm system and a swimming pool. Although Edward did much of the construction himself, he borrowed $35,000 from the First National Bank of Barrington and $45,000 from various “friends” to finance the work. When Penelope left in 1979, the house was appraised for $242,000. At the time of the dissolution proceedings, Edward believed the value to be $325,000. A mortgage of $47,000 remained on the property.

Over the past 15 years, Edward purchased certain airplane hangars. He was currently making monthly payments of $600 on two hangars in Huntley, Illinois. The original cost of one hangar was $50,000; the other, $18,000 or $19,000. He still owed “a lot of money on the hangars,” and although he was “still in title,” he had sold his “vested interest” in the hangars. At one time he had formed a corporation, Halters Aviation, “to lease planes and create a tax deduction”; but the corporation had been dissolved prior to the marriage dissolution proceedings. Edward owned two airplanes: a $100,000 Cessna for which he still owed $86,000, with monthly payments of $1,500; and a Piper Cub purchased for between $12,000 to $15,000, with $7,000 or $8,000 still owing. One plane was leased to a son from his first marriage, who paid him an unspecified amount on a yearly basis.

In 1969, Edward purchased property in Montana consisting of several thousand acres of land, cattle and a house. He set up a corporation, Matters, Inc., for this purpose of which Penelope was an officer and a shareholder. Although “most” of the Montana property was sold in 1979 for $900,000, Edward did not personally receive any of the proceeds because of “debts on the property which had to be satisfied.” He still owned 300 acres of the Montana property which were also pledged as security for debts. His annual expenses for the Montana property were $4,600. In order to obtain the necessary down payment for the purchase of the Montana property, Edward had “refinanced” the three-flat in Berkeley and also the Brinker Road property. “Quite a while ago,” Edward transferred title to the Montana property to his “office pension fund.”

In 1981, Edward’s medical corporation, Edward Malters, M.D.S.C., purchased a condominium in Elgin which he used as a medical office. The cost of the condominium was $144,000, and he had borrowed $20,000 for a down payment. His monthly mortgage payments were $2,500 and his monthly condominium assessment was $200. His medical corporation also owned two automobiles: a 1980 Honda and an AMC Eagle on which the corporation still owed $10,000.

Edward was a sole practitioner. At the time of the property hearing, his medical practice had declined by 50%. He had reduced his office staff from three secretaries to one. He was unable to afford the $2,500 per month premium necessary to cover his medical-malpractice insurance. Including the condominium and the automobiles, the debts of the medical practice approximated $175,000. Although his gross income in 1979 had been $320,000, in 1982 it was $119,305. Edward was currently serving two to three months per year on active duty in the United States Navy. The preceding year he had received $3,800 income from this activity. While on active duty, he received no income from his medical practice.

Edward’s medical practice had two pension plans from which, since 1977, he had borrowed $900,000 to “meet living expenses,” to “buy cattle” and to “buy airplanes.”

Edward was currently paying medical school tuition for two sons from his first marriage. He also sent them spending money. His expenses for the two boys were approximately $2,000 monthly. His total monthly expenses were $16,016.59 and his monthly income was $4,006.92. He was unable to meet his mortgage payments, and his real estate tax bill was two months overdue. He had not yet begun to pay off the loan for the swimming pool.

Norman Richter, Edward’s accountant, testified: Based on its corporate assets and liabilities, he valued Edward’s medical corporation at $40,000, after considering the existing assets of the corporation, its accounts receivable, and its bills outstanding. He placed no value on the “good will” of the corporation since Edward was a sole practitioner. Edward’s practice had two pension plans: a “defined benefit” plan and a “money purchase” plan.

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Bluebook (online)
478 N.E.2d 1068, 133 Ill. App. 3d 168, 88 Ill. Dec. 460, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 1938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-malters-illappct-1985.