In Re Marriage of Smith

516 N.E.2d 777, 162 Ill. App. 3d 792, 114 Ill. Dec. 622, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 3442
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 17, 1987
Docket5-86-0152
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 516 N.E.2d 777 (In Re Marriage of Smith) 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 Smith, 516 N.E.2d 777, 162 Ill. App. 3d 792, 114 Ill. Dec. 622, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 3442 (Ill. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JUSTICE LEWIS *

delivered the opinion of the court:

The instant marriage dissolution case comes to this court for a second time, following initial judgment in the trial court in 1979 and subsequent appeal to this court in 1980. Upon appeal to the supreme court in 1981, that court reversed in part and remanded for rehearing. In 1983 the governing statute was amended, and, in 1985, the trial court entered a second judgment, from which this appeal is taken. Upon appeal from the trial court’s rulings on property, maintenance and attorney fees, this court must first determine whether the amended statute, effective August 19, 1983, was applicable to the hearing on remand held after that date or whether the cause must be governed by the law in effect at the time of the original hearing. We hold that the trial court, upon remand, properly applied the law in effect at the time of the original hearing and we, accordingly, affirm in part and reverse in part.

The procedural history of this case is relevant to our determination and may be summarized as follows. The plaintiff, Iona Smith, filed a petition for dissolution of marriage in November 1977. The cause was heard in October 1978, and the original judgment was entered on January 3, 1979. After hearing and argument on the plaintiff’s post-trial motion, an amended judgment was entered on April 25, 1979.

The plaintiff appealed and, on October 15, 1980, this court affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part. In re Marriage of Smith (1980), 90 Ill. App. 3d 168, 412 N.E. 2d 985.

The defendant, Gaines N. Smith, appealed and, on October 21, 1981, the supreme court affirmed the circuit and appellate courts in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further hearing in accordance with its opinion. In re Marriage of Smith (1981), 86 Ill. 2d 518, 427 N.E.2d 1239.

A second hearing was held in the trial court in November 1984, and the last judgment was entered June 21, 1985. The defendant, upon denial of his post-trial motion, filed this appeal from the 1985 judgment.

Following the decision of the supreme court but prior to the trial court’s hearing upon remand, Public Act 83 — 129 was signed into law on August 19, 1983. That public act amended sections 401 and 503 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 40, pars. 401, 503) (hereinafter the Dissolution Act) and substantially changed the law relating to the treatment of commingled property in marital dissolution proceedings. Section 2 of Public Act 83 — 129 provided as follows:

“This Act takes effect upon its becoming a law, and applies to actions filed prior to and pending on the effective date of this amendatory Act of 1983, and actions filed on or after its effective date.” (Emphasis added.) Pub. Act 83 — 129, eff. August 19, 1983.

It is generally accepted that Public Act 83 — 129 constituted a legislative rejection of the rationale of the supreme court’s holding in In re Marriage of Smith (1981), 86 Ill. 2d 518, 427 N.E.2d 1239. (See In re Marriage of Brown (1984), 127 Ill. App. 3d 831, 469 N.E.2d 612.) The supreme court in Smith stated the rule:

“[Wjhere a spouse who holds nonmarital property causes it to be commingled with marital property, or with nonmarital property of the other, we hold that the commingled property is presumed to be marital property.” (Smith, 86 Ill. 2d at 529, 427 N.E.2d at 1244.)

The amended section 503 (see Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 40, par. 503(c)) said, in essence, that commingled property shall become marital but provided that the contributing estate shall be reimbursed, notwithstanding any transmutation, if the contribution is traceable by clear and convincing evidence.

In the instant case, the trial court, upon remand, followed the rule set forth by the supreme court in Smith in classifying the parties’ property for purposes of division. On appeal from that judgment, the defendant maintains that the trial court should have based its decision on section 503 as amended in 1983 by Public Act 83 — 129. The defendant asserts that section 2 of that Act is controlling and requires that the amended statute be applied in the hearing upon remand, which was held after the effective date of Public Act 83 — 129. The defendant argues strenuously that to hold otherwise would create the anomalous result of denying him the benefit of the new statute brought about by his own case in the supreme court.

While the defendant’s argument, at first glance, appears compelling, we find that the issue of what law should be applied upon remand is determined by section 801(d) of the Dissolution Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 40, par. 801(d)), which was enacted in 1977 and has been in effect during all of these proceedings. That section states in pertinent part:

“(d) In any action or proceeding in which an appeal was pending or a new trial was ordered prior to the effective date of this Act, the law in effect at the time of the order sustaining the appeal or the new trial governs the appeal, the new trial, and any subsequent trial or appeal.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 40, par. 801(d).

Section 801(d) refers to the Dissolution Act itself, but it has been held that this section applies to amendments as well. (See In re Marriage of Brown (1984), 127 Ill. App. 3d 831, 469 N.E.2d 612; In re Marriage of Sweet (1983), 119 Ill. App. 3d 1033, 458 N.E.2d 14.) This court, in In re Marriage of Brown, addressing a situation similar to that of the case at bar, followed section 801(d) in holding that the 1983 amendment to section 503 did not govern proceedings on remand from an appeal if the judgment appealed from was entered prior to the amendment’s effective date. We noted in Brown that the purpose of section 801(d) was to “ ‘allow the correction on appeal or in a new trial of errors made in applying the law in effect at the time of the original hearing pursuant to that law.’ ” In re Marriage of Brown, 127 Ill. App. 3d 831, 835, 469 N.E.2d 612, 615, quoting Ill. Ann. Stat., ch. 40, par. 801(d), Historical and Practice Notes, at 166 (Smith-Hurd 1980); cf. In re Marriage of Sweet (1983), 119 Ill. App. 3d 1033, 458 N.E.2d 14 (section 801(d) required that custody modification hearing be governed, on remand, by law in effect at time of original judgment).

Section 2 of Public Act 83 — 129, relied upon by the defendant, was in effect when Brown was decided, but was not referred to in that decision. For some reason, section 2, which appears in the Public Act, was not printed in the Illinois Revised Statutes.

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Bluebook (online)
516 N.E.2d 777, 162 Ill. App. 3d 792, 114 Ill. Dec. 622, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 3442, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-smith-illappct-1987.