Kieson v. Kieson

2019 ND 15, 921 N.W.2d 427

• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court
• Decided: January 15, 2019
• Docket: 20180157
• Status: Published

Opinion

Per Curiam.

[¶1] Brooks Kieson appealed from a judgment granting Linda Kieson a divorce from him and distributing their marital property. We conclude the district court's property division is not clearly erroneous, the substantial disparity in the division was adequately explained by the court based on the amount of fault attributable to Brooks Kieson, and the court's decision was not induced by an erroneous view of the law. See Vitko v. Vitko , 524 N.W.2d 102 , 104 (N.D. 1994) (court did not err in excluding military disability benefits and social security benefits from equitable property division, while considering the disability income to determine the financial circumstances of each party); Olson v. Olson , 445 N.W.2d 1 , 15 (N.D. 1989) (VandeWalle, J., concurring) (although social security cannot be distributed or used as an offset in division of marital property, social security benefits may be considered as part of the entire financial condition of the party receiving the benefits). We summarily affirm the judgment under N.D.R.App.P. 35.1(a)(2) and (7).

[¶2] Gerald W. VandeWalle, C.J.

Jerod E. Tufte

Daniel J. Crothers

Lisa Fair McEvers

William A. Neumann, S.J.

[¶3] The Honorable William A. Neumann, S.J., sitting in place of Jensen, J., disqualified.