In re Marriage of Veile

2015 IL App (5th) 130499
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 28, 2015
Docket5-13-0499
StatusPublished

This text of 2015 IL App (5th) 130499 (In re Marriage of Veile) 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 Veile, 2015 IL App (5th) 130499 (Ill. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Illinois Official Reports

Appellate Court

In re Marriage of Veile, 2015 IL App (5th) 130499

Appellate Court In re MARRIAGE OF CHERYL A. VEILE, Petitioner-Appellant, and Caption ROGER D. VEILE, Respondent-Appellee.

District & No. Fifth District Docket No. 5-13-0499

Filed November 10, 2015

Decision Under Appeal from the Circuit Court of St. Clair County, No. 10-D-852; the Review Hon. Randall W. Kelley, Judge, presiding.

Judgment Affirmed in part; reversed and remanded in part.

Counsel on Rhonda D. Fiss and Michael A. Aguirre, both of Law Office of Appeal Rhonda D. Fiss, P.C., of Belleville, for appellant.

Robert E. Wells, Jr., of Pessin, Baird & Wells, of Belleville, for appellee. Panel PRESIDING JUSTICE CATES delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justice Chapman concurred in the judgment and opinion. Justice Moore* dissented, with opinion.

OPINION

¶1 Petitioner-appellant, Cheryl A. Veile (Cheryl), appeals from the supplemental judgment entered by the circuit court of St. Clair County on the original judgment of dissolution of her marriage to respondent-appellee, Roger D. Veile (Roger). We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part. ¶2 Cheryl and Roger were married in 1984. During their marriage, Cheryl worked outside the home for two years and then began working for Veile Construction Co., Inc., the family business owned by Roger’s parents. In 1992, when their daughter was born, Cheryl became a full-time homemaker and mother and did not return to the work force until 2008. Now 57, with a high school education, Cheryl continues to be employed, and at the time of the order was working full time in the housekeeping department at Memorial Hospital, earning approximately $740 every two weeks. ¶3 Roger, also 57 years of age, is a civil engineer. He is self-employed by Veile Engineering, a closely held corporation. For the majority of the marriage, Roger worked, through Veile Engineering, for Veile Construction Co., the family business owned by his parents. In 1990 and 1991, Roger received, as gifts from his parents, 43 shares of Veile Construction Co. stock. These gifts gave Roger a 33.08% share of ownership in the company. As part of its business, Veile Construction Co. owned, managed, and operated a mobile home park, Arapaho Village Mobile Home Park. Roger managed the mobile home park as part of his duties working for Veile Construction Co. In 1993, Veile Construction Co. was renamed Arapaho Village, Inc. ¶4 In June of 2006, the mobile home park was sold for approximately $4 million. The proceeds of the sale were transferred to two Fidelity accounts in the name of Arapaho Village, Inc. Roger then became the money manager for the funds, and his compensation from Arapaho Village, Inc., was reduced to a fraction of his former pay. In 2005, he was paid $48,000 for his management services to Arapaho Village. In 2010, Roger laid himself off from Veile Engineering and collected unemployment benefits off and on for the next two years. As of 2011 and 2012, Arapaho Village was paying Roger, through Veile Engineering, only $3,000 to $6,000 per year for managing the Fidelity accounts. For the 2011 tax year, Veile Engineering received a total of $18,500 in income. Accordingly, based upon his financial statements, the average of Roger’s earning for the last three years was $1,359 per month. His adjusted gross income for 2011, according to his tax return, was $40,869, after deduction of self-employed

* Justice Spomer was originally assigned to participate in this case. Justice Moore was substituted on the panel subsequent to Justice Spomer’s retirement and has read the briefs and listened to the tape of oral argument.

-2- health insurance and maintenance. More than half of his income was derived from assets in the form of dividends, claimed by Roger to be nonmarital. ¶5 While the earnings for Veile Engineering were minimal for a civil engineering company, the parties lived a rather lavish lifestyle funded primarily by corporate distributions Roger received based upon his gifted shares in Arapaho Village. Roger and Cheryl had virtually no debt, vacationed regularly in Florida, owned a $260,000 home, joined exclusive clubs, had a $65,000 boat, owned their vehicles outright, and bought clothing and personal items whenever they wanted. ¶6 Throughout the marriage, Roger would withdraw retained earnings in the Arapaho Village account and place them in other accounts, including his own Fidelity investment account, as well as the parties’ joint account. Over the years, he transferred some $90,000 to the parties’ joint account to fund the marriage and their lifestyle, plus any monies needed to pay the taxes and expenses owed as a result of the distributions. In 1996, Arapaho Village became an S corporation. As a result, the taxes owed for Arapaho Village flowed through the company to the stockholders. In order to pay the taxes owed for the corporation, Roger received money from Arapaho Village, placed it into his joint account with Cheryl, and paid the taxes due. ¶7 From 1998 until 2011, Cheryl was an officer of Arapaho Village and was authorized to trade within the company’s Fidelity investment accounts. A few months prior to the dissolution, however, Cheryl’s name was removed from the Arapaho Village accounts. Cheryl was unaware that she had been removed from the Arapaho Village accounts. At the time of trial, Roger’s portion of the Fidelity accounts was worth $768,359. Roger’s personal investment account had a value of approximately $472,670. ¶8 As a part of the dissolution, the parties sold their marital home. Cheryl moved in with her parents and took care of them in exchange for housing. Roger also moved in with his parents. The parties’ daughter, who was still in college, chose not to live with either Cheryl or Roger. Roger was paying her college tuition, but Cheryl was paying the majority of her other expenses, including medical bills and insurance. ¶9 The judgment of dissolution of the parties’ marriage was entered on June 13, 2012. In the supplemental judgment of dissolution, entered on April 9, 2013, the trial court classified the 43 shares of Veile Construction Co., n/k/a Arapaho Village, Inc., gifted to Roger by his parents, as Roger’s nonmarital property. The court further concluded that the investment accounts Roger established in his name alone, which were funded by distributions from Arapaho Village, were also his nonmarital property. The court then awarded Cheryl 55.19% of the parties’ marital assets, including the remaining balance from the sale of the marital residence, leaving Roger with 44.81% of the marital assets. The parties’ daughter was awarded several accounts already established in her name, as well as the vehicle she was then driving. The court further determined, given that neither party was earning a significant income, that Cheryl would receive maintenance in the amount of $650 per month until Roger turned 66 or elected to take Social Security. The court did not classify the maintenance as rehabilitative, but stated that Cheryl was under an obligation to use her own good-faith efforts to maximize her self-sufficiency. The court also concluded that each party was responsible for their own attorney fees and costs, and further denied Cheryl’s request for sanctions for alleged discovery violations. ¶ 10 Cheryl first argues on appeal that Roger’s portion of the retained earnings of Arapaho Village, including distributions from the two Fidelity accounts, were attributable to his

-3- personal efforts in managing, building, and eventually selling the mobile home park, and should therefore be categorized as marital property. She also contends the court abused its discretion in awarding her only $650 a month in maintenance, which could terminate as early as Roger reached the age of 62.

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2015 IL App (5th) 130499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-marriage-of-veile-illappct-2015.