In Re Marriage of Steinberg

701 N.E.2d 254, 299 Ill. App. 3d 603, 233 Ill. Dec. 611, 1998 Ill. App. LEXIS 690
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 30, 1998
Docket1-96-3420
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 701 N.E.2d 254 (In Re Marriage of Steinberg) 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 Steinberg, 701 N.E.2d 254, 299 Ill. App. 3d 603, 233 Ill. Dec. 611, 1998 Ill. App. LEXIS 690 (Ill. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

JUSTICE GREIMAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Following a judgment of dissolution of marriage entered on May 15, 1996, petitioner Yvonne B. Steinberg (Yvonne) seeks reimbursement to the marital estate from three nonmarital assets awarded to respondent Richard C.W Steinberg (Richard): (1) the accounts receivable in Richard’s medical corporation, (2) the money in Richard’s corporate checking account, and (3) the interest earned on a certain municipal bond (the Stein Roe account).

This appeal primarily raises two issues: (1) whether the accounts receivable from a nonmarital corporation are subject to reimbursement; and (2) whether the marital estate in the present case is entitled to reimbursement from the accounts receivable. In addition, Yvonne maintains that the marital estate is entitled to reimbursement from the checking account for Richard’s corporation and for cash allegedly given to Richard’s mother in amounts equivalent to the interest earned in the Stein Roe account held in Richard’s name only.

We find that accounts receivable are subject to reimbursement, but in the present case the marital estate is not entitled to reimbursement from the accounts receivable because the annual income received by Richard during the course of the marriage adequately compensated the marital estate. For the same reason we find that the marital estate is not entitled to reimbursement from the corporate checking account. We also find that the record does not support reimbursement for the amount of interest earned on Richard’s municipal bond in the Stein Roe account. Thus, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

On March 18, 1984, Yvonne and Richard married and later had two children: a son named Ryan, who was born on October 7, 1985, and a daughter named Britt, who was born on October 20, 1986. Yvonne filed a petition for dissolution of marriage on May 19, 1994, and Richard filed a counterpetition for dissolution of marriage on October 3, 1994. At the time of trial in April 1996, Yvonne was 41 years old and Richard was 46 years old.

At trial, both Richard and Yvonne testified. In addition, Richard presented three witnesses: Dr. Stanley Matthew Zydlo, Jr., chief of emergency services at Northwest Community Hospital; Kathleen Keyes, the sole office employee of Richard; and June Steinberg, the mother of Richard. The record does not include any exhibits presented at trial. The record reveals the following evidence relevant to the three nonmarital assets at issue on appeal.

Richard began his medical practice in October 1980, i.e., about 3V2 years before his marriage to Yvonne in March 1984. In 1981, as a self-employed, sole practitioner, Richard incorporated his medical practice as Richard C.W. Steinberg, M.D., S.C., of which he was and is the sole shareholder. The corporation collects the fees, pays the expenses for his medical practice and provides him with a salary.

Regarding the accounts receivable, the parties stipulated that, at the time of dissolution, the value of the collectibles for Richard’s corporation was $215,000. Richard testified that, prior to the marriage, his accounts receivable amounted to $125,000 and that the collection rate at that time ranged between 75% to 80%.

Regarding the corporate checking account, Richard testified that, before marriage, the amount in his corporate checking account was $20,477.09. At the time of dissolution, the corporate checking account had an approximate balance of $24,000.

Richard drew a regular, gross salary of $10,000 per month from the corporation during the course of marriage. Richard would deposit the net amount of his monthly salary (about $6,445) in a joint checking account, from which Yvonne paid the bills. Richard also received annual bonuses during the course of the marriage. Richard’s annual income, including salary and bonus, during the course of the marriage was as follows:

1984 - $157,500
1985 - unknown (tax returns apparently were unavailable)
1986 - $230,000
1987 - $326,800
1988 - $274,000
1989 - $249,000
1990 - $301,000
1991 - $288,250
1992- $286,000
1993 - $242,000
1994- $157,500.

Richard always worked in family practice and built his practice by making himself available for emergency room calls. From at least 1984 until 1990, Richard worked emergency room call from 18 to 21 nights a month because, by being available so often, Richard received a tremendous number of referrals, including patients admitted to the hospital for care and patients coming to his office for follow-up treatment or visits. After 1990, new hospital rules reduced the amount of time a doctor could work emergency room call. In 1991 and Í992, Richard’s number of call nights decreased to about 12 nights a month. In early 1993, the hospital rules again changed and Richard’s nights on call decreased to seven per month. After 1994, the call schedule reduced Richard’s nights per month to three. As of May 1, 1996, the then current call schedule allowed Richard only two nights per month. Richard testified that his income decreased because the changes in the rules for the hospital emergency room reduced his number of patients. In addition, Richard’s income decreased because medical conditions that had been treated on an inpatient basis were now treated on an outpatient basis and because managed care groups reduced the number of his patients.

Dr. Stanley Matthew Zydlo, Jr., chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Northwest Community Hospital, and Kathleen Keyes essentially corroborated Richard’s testimony. Dr. Zydlo testified that the emergency room is a source of added patients for doctors and that the hospital rules were changed to reduce the amount of time that a doctor could work in the emergency room. The rules were changed because some individuals might be overworked or getting too many patients.

Kathleen Keyes has worked in Richard’s office for 14 years. Keyes performs all of the office work, takes care of patients’ charts, performs some nursing functions, and prepares the billing. At the time of her testimony, Keyes was the only employee in Richard’s office. Keyes testified that the number of Richard’s patients decreased over the years and the billing procedure has remained virtually the same. Since 1993, Keyes has collected the payments from Richard’s patients and deposited them all into the corporate checking account. Keyes testified that the current balance in the checking account was approximately $24,000.

Yvonne was not employed outside the home during the tenure of her marriage to Richard and was unemployed for six months before the marriage.

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Bluebook (online)
701 N.E.2d 254, 299 Ill. App. 3d 603, 233 Ill. Dec. 611, 1998 Ill. App. LEXIS 690, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-steinberg-illappct-1998.