McCarroll v. McCarroll

767 So. 2d 715, 2000 WL 593769
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 12, 2000
Docket99 CA 0046
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 767 So. 2d 715 (McCarroll v. McCarroll) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCarroll v. McCarroll, 767 So. 2d 715, 2000 WL 593769 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

767 So.2d 715 (2000)

Margarette McCARROLL
v.
Donald P. McCARROLL.

No. 99 CA 0046.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

May 12, 2000.
Rehearing Denied July 7, 2000.
Writ Denied November 3, 2000.

*717 Lila Tritico Hogan, Hammond, Counsel for Plaintiff—Appellant—Margarette McCarroll.

Reginald J. McIntyre, Hammond, Counsel for Defendant—Appellee—Donald P. McCarroll.

Before: LeBLANC, GONZALES, FITZSIMMONS, WEIMER, and PETTIGREW, JJ.

WEIMER, J.

Margarette McCarroll appeals from a trial court partition of community property between herself and her former spouse, Donald McCarroll. After a thorough review of the record, we amend the judgment in part, and, as amended, affirm.

PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

After proceeding up and down through the judicial process, this case is before us for a second time on the merits. The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the trial court's initial judgment of partition of the community. McCarroll v. McCarroll, 96-2700 (La.10/21/97), 701 So.2d 1280. In an extensive opinion, the supreme court held that an agreement between the parties (the extrajudicial partition) regarding Mrs. McCarroll's exclusive use of the family residence did not extend beyond 1984. Mrs. McCarroll's occupancy of the family home after that time was deemed to be "precarious, at best, and clearly not contemplated by the parties in 1979." McCarroll, 96-2700 at 14, 701 So.2d at 1287. Mrs. McCarroll received $5,000.00 cash, movables valued at $2,000.00, and rental value for use of the family residence for approximately 70 months. Because the rental value should not have been assessed to her retroactively in the computation for partition of the community, the supreme court found the extrajudicial partition lesionary. See LSA-R.S. 9:374(C); McCarroll, 96-2700 at 22, 701 So.2d at 1291.

The matter was remanded to the trial court with directions to: make a determination of the exact date on which the last McCarroll child reached the age of 18 in 1984; make "definite findings of fact with respect to the value of some elements of *718 the community"; and judicially partition the community property. Id. On remand, the trial court partitioned the community property by awarding Mrs. McCarroll the family home, its contents, and the sum of $10,043.47. She was, moreover, ordered to pay all costs.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

Mrs. McCarroll assigns the following as errors by the trial court:

1) The failure to partition the Chevron stock in kind and the valuation of the Chevron stock as of October 25, 1994, the date of the original trial;

2) The failure to reimburse her for one-half of Donald McCarroll's withdrawals from the community portion of the invested co-owned assets;

3) The failure to reimburse her for one-half of the growth on the community portion of the invested co-owned assets from July 1994;

4) The grant of a rental claim for Donald McCarroll beyond the date ordered by the Louisiana Supreme Court;

5) The alteration of the initial date of use and occupancy of the family home by Mrs. McCarroll;

6) The valuation of the used household items at $10,306.25;

7) The use of the year, 1955, instead of 1960, as the commencement date for Mr. McCarroll's participation in the Chevron Retirement Plan;

8) The credit to Mr. McCarroll in the sum of $8,968.91 as loans to Mrs. McCarroll;

9) The reimbursement to Mr. McCarroll of house note payments;

10) The assessment of all costs to Mrs. McCarroll; and

11) The court's method of partition of the community property.

APPORTIONMENT OF CHEVRON STOCK

When Mr. McCarroll retired in 1990, he received 3,710 shares of Chevron stock as part of his profit sharing/savings plan. On appeal, Mrs. McCarroll agrees that the trial court correctly determined that 17.3 percent or 641.83 shares were community property. After 1990, there was a stock split, doubling the community shares to 1283.66. The trial court credited Mrs. McCarroll's share of the total community with one half of the value of the community shares as of the October 25, 1994, which was the date of the original trial. Mrs. McCarroll asserts that the trial court erred in its failure to divide the Chevron stock in kind between the parties. We agree.

It is well settled that a trial court has broad discretion in adjudicating issues raised in a proceeding for partition of the community regime. Smith v. Smith, 95-0913, p. 10 (La.App. 1 Cir. 12/20/96), 685 So.2d 649, 655. Nevertheless, the decision of the trial judge to value the Chevron stock as of the original October 25, 1994 trial date and to fail to divide the Chevron stock in kind was an abuse of discretion. Generally, the logical and equitable manner in which to divide an asset such as publicly traded stock, which fluctuates in value, is to divide it in kind. An inkind partition avoids valuation disagreements and results in both parties sharing in the variances of the market.

Louisiana Revised Statute 9:2801[1] provides a procedure for the partition of community *719 property. In Cheramie v. Bone, 444 So.2d 200, 202 (La.App. 1 Cir.1983), the court articulated a preference for an in-kind partition of certain assets, stating:

La. R.S. 9:2801(4)[2] establishes an order of priorities to be considered by the trial court in allocating the assets and liabilities of the parties.... In Spaht, Matrimonial Regimes, 43 La.L.Rev. 513, 515-516 (1982) appears the following:
The court then shall divide the community assets and liabilities so that each spouse receives property of equal net value. The language is identical to that of article 2369.1, which was repealed. The first priority in dividing the assets and liabilities is a partition in kind, evidenced by the following language: "The court shall allocate or assign to the respective spouses all of the community assets and liabilities."

The court subsequently indicated there was no evidence in the record to show why U.S. Savings Bonds and cash could not be divided in kind. Cheramie v. Bone, 444 So.2d at 203.

In Brown v. Brown, 28,441, p. 20 (La.App. 2 Cir. 8/21/96), 680 So.2d 1203, 1215, writs denied, 96-2518, 96-2562 (12/6/96), 684 So.2d 939, 940, the court stated:

While recognizing the broad discretion of the trial court to divide the community property, we find that under the facts of this case when a community asset is easily divisible in kind, when the entire allocation of the assets to one spouse is not warranted under La. R.S. 9:2801(4)(c) for special circumstances, and when there is evidence that a significant increase or decrease in the value of the asset is imminent, the trial court should attempt to divide the asset in kind to avoid the disputed issue of valuation. However, we recognize that under the process set forth in La. R.S. 9:2801(4), whereby the court is charged to divide the property "so that each spouse receives property of an equal net value" and so as to minimize, if possible, the need for payment of an "equalizing sum of money" by one spouse, the partition of assets such as the Gin stock, which are readily divisible in kind, cannot always be made.[3]

We agree with this statement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
767 So. 2d 715, 2000 WL 593769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccarroll-v-mccarroll-lactapp-2000.