In re the Dissolution of the Marriage of Cavilee

535 P.2d 774, 21 Or. App. 506, 1975 Ore. App. LEXIS 1430
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 27, 1975
DocketNo. 82840
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 535 P.2d 774 (In re the Dissolution of the Marriage of Cavilee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Dissolution of the Marriage of Cavilee, 535 P.2d 774, 21 Or. App. 506, 1975 Ore. App. LEXIS 1430 (Or. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

LANGTRY, J.

Appellant-husband seeks review of a supplemental dissolution decree providing for the division of the marital estate, requiring him to make monthly child support payments, and awarding respondent-wife attorney fees. Husband was granted custody of the parties’ son (age 13), and wife that of their daughter (age 14), in a decree dissolving the marriage entered May 3, 1974, neither party appealing therefrom. Our review is de novo upon the record, consisting of a “trial anew in the fullest sense,” with the findings of the trial court being given no weight except on disputed questions of fact where credibility of vritnesses is the issue. Wright and Wright, 13 Or App 101, 508 P2d 829 (1973); Emery v. Emery, 5 Or App 133, 481 P2d 656, Sup Ct review denied (1971); Hannan v. Good Samaritan Hosp., 4 Or App 178, 471 P2d 831, 476 P2d 931 (1970), Sup Ct review denied (1971).

The parties were married in 1960, with neither owning any substantial assets. During the first years of the relationship husband was regularly employed as a construction worker. Within four years, however, he was required to undergo back surgery necessitated by an aggravated birth defect, and did not work for a period of approximately one year thereafter. While employed as a laborer for a dredging company during May of 1969, husband suffered an industrial accident which also required surgical treatment. Prom the time of that accident husband (age 35 at the time of dissolution) has been unable to maintain steady employment [509]*509of any kind and has relied upon monthly disability payments from the Veterans’ Administration as his sole source of income. Employed for over half of the marriage as a receptionist, bookkeeper and accounting clerk, wife (age 31) provided the bulk of the family support from the time of the accident in 1969 until relieved of a position with the city of Salem in mid-January 1974.

In exchange for a release of all claims arising from the industrial mishap, the parties received a lump sum settlement on November 6,1973 which, after deductions for attorney fees and medical bills, amounted to approximately $55,000. Some $15,000 was utilized to pay outstanding obligations, to purchase a pickup truck and camper, and to open a savings account with a balance of $3,000, the remaining $40,000 being placed in time certificates.

The parties separated for the first time on December 2, 1973, executing what was purported to be a property settlement agreement formulated without the benefit of legal advice. According to the terms of that agreement, husband was to receive their new truck and the full $40,000 remaining from the settlement, while wife would maintain possession of the family home and automobile. Nearly $4,000 in checking and savings accounts were also apportioned between the parties at that time. On December 3, husband transferred $35,000 of the settlement funds to his brother Roscoe Cavilee in consideration for his promise to provide an annuity of $215 per month for the remainder of husband’s life. On December 10, the pickup and camper as well as a boat, the title to which wife had shortly beforehand conveyed to husband, were transferred to Roscoe for nominal consideration; on the same day he received the last $5,000 held by husband, agreeing to repay that amount as husband’s bills accrued.

[510]*510Wife filed her initial petition for dissolution of the marriage on December 12, 1973. On May 3, 1974, following studies by the Family Court Service as to the relative fitness of the parties as parents and before the entry of any order by the circuit court, a motion was made for the filing of an amended petition joining Boscoe Cavilee as a party — wife alleging that the newly discovered conveyances to him were carried out with the intent and purpose of defrauding her of property rights in marital assets. That motion was granted and, as noted above, a decree dissolving the marriage, awarding custody of the children, and “continuing” all issues concerning the child support to be paid by either party, dividing the marital estate, and awarding attorney fees was entered that same day. A hearing on those matters “continued” was ultimately held on July 17,1974, the decree challenged here being entered on September 30.

Conceding that the property division decreed by the circuit court provides him with the “long half” of the marital assets,

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In re the Dissolution of the Marriage of Francis
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541 P.2d 1311 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
535 P.2d 774, 21 Or. App. 506, 1975 Ore. App. LEXIS 1430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-dissolution-of-the-marriage-of-cavilee-orctapp-1975.