In re the Marriage of Austin

82 P.3d 170, 191 Or. App. 307, 2003 Ore. App. LEXIS 1773
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 24, 2003
Docket00C-32246; A115886
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 82 P.3d 170 (In re the Marriage of Austin) 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 Marriage of Austin, 82 P.3d 170, 191 Or. App. 307, 2003 Ore. App. LEXIS 1773 (Or. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

DEITS, C. J.

Husband appeals from a judgment of dissolution of marriage, arguing that the trial court erred in its determination that wife was entitled to $750 per month of maintenance spousal support and $250 per month of compensatory spousal support for an indefinite period of time. Wife cross-assigns error, arguing that, even if the court erred in classifying some of the support as compensatory rather than maintenance support, the total support amount of $1,000 per month was appropriate. We review de novo, ORS 19.415(3), and affirm.

The parties were married in 1969, when husband was 20 and wife was 16. Early in the marriage, husband earned an associate’s degree in photography, and wife took evening classes to finish high school. Using his associate’s degree, husband worked for two years as a photographer. In the early 1970s, husband went to work as a deputy for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. While working full time, husband began course work toward obtaining a bachelor’s degree. Husband had the opportunity to be promoted to detective or sergeant, or to take a job doing technical writing for the sheriffs department, but he declined to pursue those options. Wife was a homemaker, caring for the parties’ two children. Husband experienced considerable stress in his job. Consequently, in about 1980, the family moved to northern California, where husband had accepted a lower-paying, but less stressful, position as a sheriffs deputy. Wife continued to care for the children and also earned a small income doing housecleaning. In Los Angeles, the family had lived in a custom-built home in a resort area. In northern California, they moved into an 800-square-foot log cabin heated with a wood stove. Wife raised animals, grew a garden, canned vegetables, and split wood for heating. At some point, husband took a yet lower-paying job as a welfare fraud investigator.

In 1984, husband decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in religious studies. Husband cashed out his retirement account, totaling approximately $28,000, and the family moved to Oregon, where they lived on the proceeds of the [310]*310retirement account while husband worked toward his degree for about two years, attending Canyonview Bible College, Western Baptist College, and Western Oregon State College. At some point, husband changed his educational plans and pursued a degree in criminal justice. During the two years that husband attended college, wife took care of the children and the household, including keeping the children quiet and out of husband’s way while he was studying. Wife also assisted husband with his school work, including typing papers for him. Wife supported husband’s decisions to pursue further education, even though it resulted in husband being unavailable for family responsibilities, because she was led to believe that it would ultimately advance the family’s finances. She testified:

“If it wasn’t to better himself in his job and his work, then the time and the money that he took away from the family and the stress that it put on the family were purely for selfish reasons. And so I assumed, especially when like he said the A. A. degree benefitted him with his job with the micro — oh, heavens — anyway, the film place that he worked for. And the fact that he got his B.S. degree in criminal justice administration, I assumed that it would go to better himself with work.”

In 1986, husband obtained a degree in criminal justice and returned to the workforce. He took a job as a deputy with the Clackamas County Sheriffs Department and has remained in that position since that time.

Wife attempted several times to pursue further education that would provide her with marketable skills. In California, wife enrolled in an early childhood education program. However, because husband did not take on additional responsibility for the children or housework or assist wife in her studying, wife gave up her studies. This pattern repeated when wife enrolled in a psychology class at Long Beach Community College and in a medical assistant program. In Oregon, wife also looked into cosmetology school and a nursing program at Chemeketa Community College. Wife did not enroll in either of those programs because she “saw the writing on the wall” and because “[w]e would have put money into it that I couldn’t have gotten out if it didn’t work.” Wife entered the workforce in 1988 as a part-time school bus [311]*311driver. At husband’s request, wife restricted her hours to part time and only accepted a particular schedule because husband wanted her at home during the middle of the day. Wife did not work in the summer because husband preferred her not to. By the 1990s, wife was working full time as a school bus driver.

Throughout the marriage, husband decided where they would live, the nature and hours of their work, and what educational and professional opportunities he would pursue. Wife had primary, if not exclusive, responsibility for housework and yard work, child rearing and transportation, shopping, and paying bills. Wife handled the parties’ finances, and the parties lived frugally, generally keeping credit card balances low, living in a modest home, and driving older cars.

At the time of the dissolution proceeding in 2001, husband had advanced as far as he could within his job classification with the Clackamas County Sheriffs Department. Husband declined to seek a promotion to sergeant. In the years before the dissolution proceeding, husband was paid approximately $23 per hour, earning slightly more than $50,000 a year. Because of his degree in criminad justice, husband earns slightly more than he would otherwise. At the time of the dissolution proceeding, wife was working as a school bus driver full time during the school year and part time during the summer, at a rate of about $13 per hour, earning close to $20,000 per year. Wife expected to receive a small inheritance from the estate of her mother who had died shortly before the parties separated.

The trial court divided the marital assets — which were almost exclusively in the form of retirement accounts and home equity — nearly equally, so that each party received property valued at roughly $230,000. The trial court concluded that wife’s potential share of her mother’s estate was not a marital asset or alternatively, if it were, that wife had overcome the presumption of equal contribution.1 The trial court awarded wife indefinite spousal support of $1,000 per [312]*312month, $750 of which was deemed maintenance support and $250 of which was deemed compensatory support.

On appeal, husband argues that the trial court erred both in awarding $750 per month in indefinite maintenance spousal support and in awarding any compensatory spousal support to wife. Husband contends that the judgment should be modified to award only maintenance spousal support of $500 per month for five years.

We affirm the trial court’s award of maintenance spousal support without discussion. We write only to discuss the parties’ arguments concerning the award of compensatory spousal support. That award is based on ORS 107.105(1)(d), which states, in part, that the court may provide:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In re the Marriage of Andersen
310 P.3d 1171 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2013)
In Re the Marriage of Cassezza
260 P.3d 504 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2011)
In Re the Marriage of HARRIS
244 P.3d 801 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2010)
In the Matter of Hook
242 P.3d 697 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
In Re the Marriage of Hook
242 P.3d 697 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
In the Matter of Harris and Harris
217 P.3d 224 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2009)
McCollum v. Kmart Corp.
207 P.3d 1200 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2009)
In Re the Marriage of Talik
202 P.3d 267 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2009)
In the Matter of Marriage of English and English
194 P.3d 887 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2008)
Ram Technical Services, Inc. v. Koresko
171 P.3d 374 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2007)
In re the Marriage of Garza
118 P.3d 824 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2005)
Matter of Marriage of Kollman
96 P.3d 884 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2004)
In re the Marriage of Gibbons
94 P.3d 879 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 P.3d 170, 191 Or. App. 307, 2003 Ore. App. LEXIS 1773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-marriage-of-austin-orctapp-2003.