McLaughlin v. McLaughlin

82 Cal. App. 4th 327, 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6014, 98 Cal. Rptr. 2d 136, 2000 Daily Journal DAR 7917, 2000 Cal. App. LEXIS 567
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 18, 2000
DocketNo. B125410
StatusPublished
Cited by73 cases

This text of 82 Cal. App. 4th 327 (McLaughlin v. McLaughlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McLaughlin v. McLaughlin, 82 Cal. App. 4th 327, 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6014, 98 Cal. Rptr. 2d 136, 2000 Daily Journal DAR 7917, 2000 Cal. App. LEXIS 567 (Cal. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinions

[329]*329Opinion

VOGEL (C. S.), P. J.

Introduction

Janet McLaughlin appeals from the trial court’s entry of a judgment of marital dissolution ending her marriage to respondent Donald T. McLaughlin. Appellant contends judgment should not have been entered in the absence of statutorily required declarations of disclosure regarding the parties’ assets and liabilities. However, appellant has failed to show prejudicial error and, therefore, we shall affirm the judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

Donald and Janet were married in November 1980, and separated in January 1997.1 They had one child, bom in 1989. On January 9, 1997, Donald filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. In February 1997, the parties entered into an agreement as to the distribution of their separate and community property.2 Donald’s counsel prepared a proposed judgment incorporating the terms of the settlement agreement, and the parties signed the agreement on February 24, 1997. The settlement agreement required Janet to pay Donald $750 per month in spousal support and $637 per month in child support.

On March 17, 1997, Janet filed a notice of rescission of the settlement agreement and stipulation for judgment. Her stated grounds for rescinding were “fraud, misrepresentation, failure of consideration, failure to notarize, [and] failure to submit and serve preliminary and final declarations of disclosure.” (Capitalization omitted.) As part of the settlement agreement, in addition to paying child and spousal support, Janet had agreed to give to Donald approximately $165,000, representing half of the proceeds of the sale of stock she held as separate property. Janet claimed that Donald had promised that if she did so he would enter marriage counseling with her with the intention of reconciling. On April 16, 1997, Janet filed an amended notice of rescission.

On May 9, 1997, Donald filed a motion seeking entry of judgment. In his declaration accompanying the motion, Donald denied promising to reconcile if Janet would agree to the financial arrangements set forth in the settlement [330]*330agreement. He stated that “[i]f anything, the agreement did not favor [him]” with regard to the division of property.

One year later, in March 1998, Janet filed a motion seeking to set aside the February 24,1997, settlement agreement and to deny Donald’s request to enter judgment. In her declaration accompanying the motion, Janet states: “I am also separately requesting that the Agreement be Set Aside because the Petitioner failed to disclose the existence of certain assets in the Agreement, which I have since learned may have substantial value.” She also says that because Donald did not supply her with the statutorily required declarations of disclosure, “I had no idea of the value or extent of our assets including the cash and coins held by Petitioner.”

Donald filed responsive papers in which he contended that Janet admitted during her deposition taken in January and February 1998 that she knew exactly what the parties owned when she signed the February 24, 1997, settlement agreement. During her deposition, the transcript of which was lodged with the court, Janet stated she was aware Donald had “a very large amount of cash” and gold Krugerrands. She was asked by Donald’s counsel: “Am I correct in understanding that it is your position that you are unaware of any property—rather that you have not become aware of any property that Mr. McLaughlin is in possession of that you were unaware prior to February of 1997?” She replied, “That’s correct.”

A hearing was held on April 15, 1998, and the trial court took the matter under submission. On July 9, 1998, the trial court issued a minute order stating: “[T]he Court issues its Statement of Decision as follows: [¶] Respondent’s motion to set aside the parties’ February 24, 1997 agreement (in the form of a proposed judgment signed by the parties and their counsel) is denied for the reasons stated below. [¶] Petitioner’s motion for entry of judgment pursuant to the agreement/proposed judgment signed by both parties and their counsel is granted for the reasons stated below. The original proposed judgment signed by both parties and their counsel on February 24, 1997 shall be entered upon its receipt by the Court, [¶] The Court finds good cause for entry of the agreement/proposed judgment absent the exchange of disclosure statements by the parties. Family Code section 2106. Respondent concedes that there are no assets of which she has become aware since February 1997. Transcript of respondent’s deposition taken January 5, 1998 and February 12, 1998, vol. II, p. 52. Given that respondent has not identified any omitted assets, setting aside of the agreement/proposed judgment for the exchange of disclosure statements would exalt form oyer substance. In re Marriage of Jones (1998) 60 Cal.App.4th 685 [70 Cal.Rptr.2d 542], Basically, respondent regrets having agreed to give petitioner one-half of stock given to respondent by her mother, an asset of which [331]*331respondent was well aware. The instant facts are thus distinguishable from those presented in In re Marriage of Varner (1997) 55 Cal.App.4th 128 [63 Cal.Rptr.2d 894].” The court further found that the agreement had not been signed under duress, or due to fraud or misrepresentation by Donald. Finally, the court noted that the law favors settlements, and expressed its disinclination to second-guess the parties’ agreement.

Judgment of dissolution was entered on August 26, 1998, pursuant to the terms of the proposed judgment of February 1997. This appeal ensued.

Discussion

I

Janet contends on appeal that compliance with Family Code section 2104 is mandatory and that the trial court committed error entering judgment where, as here, the parties did not exchange preliminary declarations of disclosure. We agree that it was error to enter judgment in the absence of compliance with section 2104.

A comprehensive statutory scheme regarding disclosure of assets and liabilities in marital dissolution proceedings was enacted in 1992 as Civil Code section 4800.10, the original provision, which will be discussed below. (Stats. 1992, ch. 37, § 1, p. 135.) Civil Code section 4800.10 was amended (Stats. 1992, ch. 356, § 4, p. 6197), and shortly thereafter was repealed (Stats. 1993, ch. 1101, § 1, p. 1374) but its terms were continued without substantive change as Family Code section 2100.et seq.3 (Stats. 1993, ch. 219, § 107, p. 1611, amended by Stats. 1993, ch. 1101, p. 6197, § 1, operative Jan. 1, 1994.) Under these statutes, parties to marital dissolution proceedings have an affirmative duty to exchange both a preliminary and a final declaration of disclosure, detailing all of their assets and liabilities, prior to judgment being entered.

At the time of the present dissolution, the relevant statutes provided as follows: “The Legislature finds and declares the following: [¶] (a) It is the policy of the State of California (1) to marshal, preserve, and protect community and quasi-community assets and liabilities that exist at the date of separation so as to avoid dissipation of the community estate before distribution, (2) to ensure fair and sufficient child and spousal support awards, and (3) to achieve a division of community and quasi-community assets and liabilities on the dissolution or nullity of marriage or legal separation of the parties as provided under California law.

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82 Cal. App. 4th 327, 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6014, 98 Cal. Rptr. 2d 136, 2000 Daily Journal DAR 7917, 2000 Cal. App. LEXIS 567, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclaughlin-v-mclaughlin-calctapp-2000.