In Re the Marriage of Delgado

429 N.E.2d 1124, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1038
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 5, 1982
Docket3-1280A386
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 429 N.E.2d 1124 (In Re the Marriage of Delgado) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals 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 Delgado, 429 N.E.2d 1124, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1038 (Ind. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

GARRARD, Judge.

On June 10, 1980 the marriage of Mary and Cruz Delgado was dissolved by the Lake County Superior Court and the parties’ marital property was divided by the dissolution decree. Mary now appeals from that property division decreed by the court. We affirm.

The parties were married in 1948 when the husband, Cruz Delgado, was 39 years old and the wife, Mary Delgado, was 18 years old. Cruz had been previously married and had a ten year old son. During their marriage Cruz and Mary had two children, a son who died in an accident at age 21 and a daughter who was married at the time of the parties’ divorce. Cruz retired in 1974 from his job at the Inland Steel Company, where he had been employed through the duration of his marriage to Mary. Mary was not employed outside the home during the marriage.

When they married in 1948 the parties had no significant assets. At the time of their divorce their assets included a residence valued at $42,000, miscellaneous household furniture, a Kentucky residence valued at $2,000, Inland Steel stock valued at $19,000 with two accrued dividend checks totalling $628, U.S. Savings Bonds valued at $2,125, another bond worth $750, certifi *1126 cates of deposit worth $6,500, bank accounts totalling over $4,000, a credit union account of $1,494, a 1974 Mercury Comet, state and federal tax refunds of $480, and two cemetery lots. Also, Cruz was receiving $700 a month in retirement benefits from Inland Steel Co. and $448 a month in Social Security benefits.

In the dissolution decree the court ordered that the parties hold their family residence as tenants in common. The wife was awarded an undivided ⅜ interest in the residence (a value of $28,000). The husband was awarded an undivided ⅛ interest in the residence (a $14,000 value). While the husband was prohibited from partitioning the real estate, if the wife remarried or sold the house the husband would be entitled to one third of the net proceeds from that sale.

The husband also was awarded the automobile, 1 his personal clothing and effects, $1,390 from the bank accounts, the Kentucky property, one half of the Inland Steel stock worth $9,500, and $1,494 from a credit union.

In addition to her two thirds interest in the house, the wife was awarded all the household furniture, one half of the Inland Steel stock, certificates of deposit worth $6,500, savings bonds worth $2,875, and a savings account worth $850.

We note that the parties, in their briefs, have ascertained different total values for the assets divided under the decree. If the husband’s pension rights are excluded, the wife’s calculations show her receiving 58% of the property and the husband 42%. In the husband’s brief the division of property shows the wife receiving 62% of the property and the husband 37% when the pension rights are not placed in the calculation. Under either calculation, the wife received more than one half of the marital property.

The wife argues on appeal that the trial court failed to equitably divide the marital property. She makes two assertions of error. The wife argues that the husband’s retirement benefits were a marital asset and that the court should have awarded her a share of those benefits. In the alternative, the wife contends that in dividing the property the court should have considered the husband’s retirement benefits from Inland Steel and that such a consideration should have resulted in her being entitled to a larger portion of the assets; namely, all of the Inland Steel stock and the entire marital residence.

In a dissolution of marriage action, IC 31-l-11.5-ll(a) (West 1979) requires a court to “divide the property of the parties ... in a just and reasonable manner.” (emphasis added). The wife contends that the retirement benefits or pension rights of the husband were marital property and, hence, subject to division along equitable guidelines. She alleges that the court erred when it declined to award her a share of the Inland Steel pension fund.

We have before been faced with the issue of whether pension rights of one spouse are “property” and therefore within the ambit of IC 31-l-11.5-ll(a) (West 1979).

“... [Wjhere the pension is not present or vested in that the retiree must survive in order to receive the next periodic payment and is not entitled to receive payment on demand, the pension is not marital property which can be divided or awarded to the other spouse under IC 31-1-11.5-11.”

Wilson v. Wilson (1980), Ind.App., 409 N.E.2d 1169, 1178. See Hiscox v. Hiscox (1979), Ind.App., 385 N.E.2d 1166; Savage v. Savage (1978), Ind.App., 374 N.E.2d 536.

The record developed at the dissolution hearing does not really disclose sufficient information to advise the court regarding any vested rights the husband may have had in the pension fund. The wife did not produce any documentary evidence of the terms or conditions of the pension fund. On direct examination the wife’s counsel asked the husband about his rights under the pension fund.

“Q. How much do you receive each month from Inland Steel on your pension?
*1127 A. Seven-hundred dollars and seventy cents ($700.70).
Q. Seven-hundred dollars and seventy cents ($700.70)?
A. Now.
Q. Now? Right now. Each month?
A. That’s wrong, (referring to figure on blackboard which was rewritten)
Q. Seven-hundred dollars seventy cents ($700.70) each month. And you receive that pension as long as you live?
A. I hope so.
Q. And according to the rules of the pension, none of that is payable to your wife; it is all payable to you; you are the one who worked for it, you are the one getting paid for it.
A. You said ‘to your wife.’ My wife will get half of that; my wife will get half of that.
Q. If you die?
A. Yes.
Q. And if she is still your wife at the time you die?
A. Umm humm.
Q. If you get divorced today, you get divorced today, she doesn’t get a penny?
A. Right.
Q. She’s right down the tubes?
A. (indicated in the affirmative)”

This is the only evidence concerning the terms of the pension fund and it does not adequately reveal whether the husband had a right to demand payment or whether survival was a condition to receiving further payments.

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Bluebook (online)
429 N.E.2d 1124, 1982 Ind. App. LEXIS 1038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-marriage-of-delgado-indctapp-1982.