Moore v. Moore

971 S.W.2d 943, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 1468, 1998 WL 420231
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 28, 1998
DocketNo. 72682
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 971 S.W.2d 943 (Moore v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. Moore, 971 S.W.2d 943, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 1468, 1998 WL 420231 (Mo. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

GARY M. GAERTNER, Judge.

Appellant, Roy Clyde Moore (“husband”), appeals the judgment of the Circuit Court of St. Charles County wherein it entered a decree of dissolution dissolving husband’s marriage to respondent, Barbara Jeanette Moore (“wife”), and entered a qualified domestic relations order (“QDRO”). We remand for clarification of the judgment consistent with this opinion.

Husband and wife entered into marriage on May 13, 1961. In March of 1994, wife filed a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in the St. Charles County Circuit Court. On August 18, 1995, the trial court entered its Decree and Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage (“original decree”). In the original decree, the trial court ordered husband to “assign [to wife] one-half of those benefits which he would receive based upon his employment with McDonnell Douglas Corporation as of today’s date.” However, wife was not to “receive any increased benefits as a result of [husband’s] future employment.” This one-half related to, inter alia, husband’s “Employee Savings Plan of MDC— Salaried Employee” (the only asset at issue here). Testimony given at the trial established the Employee Savings Plan had a value of $12,008.00 on January 12, 1995, the first day of trial.

Neither husband nor wife filed any post-trial motions. On September 15, 1995, the trial court sua sponte entered an Amended Decree and Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage (“first amended decree”). In this decree, the trial court awarded wife “the Employee Savings Plan of MDC — Salaried Employees, having a total value of $12,-008_” Furthermore, the trial court stated it shall execute a QDRO to assign to wife a portion of husband’s vested benefits payable under all of his pension plans with [944]*944McDonnell Douglas Corporation. This decree farther ordered husband to “assign $12,008 of his [Employee Savings Plan Of MDC — Salaried Employee] to [wife,]” and went on to state wife “shall not receive any increased benefits as a result of [husband’s] future employment.”

On September 18,1995, wife filed a motion for reconsideration or, in the alternative, for new trial. Similarly, on September 22, 1995, husband filed a motion for reconsideration of the first amended decree, in light of a significant increase in the values of the property awarded to the parties.

While the trial court denied husband’s and wife’s motions for new trial, it did partially sustain wife’s motion to reconsider, culminating in the trial court’s entry of a second amended decree on October 16,1995.

From the first amended decree to the second amended decree, there was no change in the language awarding wife “the Employee Savings Plan,” ordering husband to assign “$12,008 of his Employee Savings Plan” to wife, prohibiting wife from receiving any increased benefits as a result of husband’s future employment, and ordering the execution of the QDRO.

The trial court entered a QDRO (“QDRO# 1”) on April 26, 1996. In QDRO# 1, the trial court ordered husband to assign to wife the balance of his Employee Savings Plan.

On May 9, 1996, husband filed a motion to amend the QDRO, requesting the trial court award wife the sum of $12,008 from husband’s Employee Savings Plan. The trial court denied this motion on August 9, 1996.

On August 5, 1996, husband submitted to the trial court a proposed amended QDRO awarding wife $12,008 from husband’s Employee Savings Plan, plus any investment gain or loss on said $12,008 from the date of the entry of the original decree to the date of distribution. The trial court denied this proposed amendment to QDRO# 1 in its order of August 9,1996.

In response to this denial, husband filed a second motion to amend the QDRO on September 30, 1996. On October 18, 1996, this motion was argued and submitted, and during the following several months, husband and wife exchanged correspondence and drafts regarding further QDRO revisions.

On February 6, 1997, husband drafted a letter requesting the trial court to approve a draft of a QDRO submitted by wife on November 4, 1996. In pertinent part, the proposed QDRO ordered husband to:

assign to [wife] from [husband’s] [Employee Savings Plan Of McDonnell Douglas Corporation — Salaried Employee] the sum of twelve thousand eight dollars ($12,-008.00) plus all interest and any investment gain or loss resulting from and/or attributable to said twelve thousand eight dollars ($12,008.00) from the (sic) January 12, 1995, the date upon which said Savings Plan was valued at twelve thousand eight dollars ($12,008.00) by [husband] until the date of distribution to [wife].

On June 6,1997, the trial court entered the QDRO submitted by wife on November 4, 1996 (“QDRO# 2”). Husband appeals, contesting the trial court’s entry of QDRO# 2 as beyond the trial court’s jurisdiction.

In reviewing a dissolution case, we must affirm the decree if there exists substantial evidence to support it, it is not against the weight of the evidence, and it neither erroneously states nor erroneously applies the law. Carter v. Carter, 901 S.W.2d 906, 909 (Mo.App. E.D.1995). Furthermore, this Court “must accept as true the evidence and permissible inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the trial court’s decree and disregard all contrary evidence and inferences.” Id. When faced with conflicting testimony, this Court defers to the trial court’s determination concerning the credibility of witnesses. Id.

In his first point on appeal, husband contends the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction in executing QDRO# 2, which assigned to wife retirement benefits accrued after the entry of the decree of dissolution, which effectively amended the division of property in the decree of dissolution, and which did not conform with said decree. Husband claims both he and McDonnell Douglas continued to make contributions to the Employee Savings Plan over the twenty months between the [945]*945trial court’s entering the original decree until the trial court’s entering QDRO# 2, and claims these contributions are non-marital property and not within the trial court’s power to divide.

Wife counters husband’s arguments by contending the trial court did not err in entering QDRO# 2 which assigned to wife $12,008.00 plus all interest and investment gain or loss from the date of valuation to the date of distribution from the Employee Savings Plan because the trial court intended to award her the entire Employee Savings Plan. Wife further claims any increase in the value of the Employee Savings Plan from $12,008 is a result of the increased value of McDonnell Douglas stock on the stock exchange rather than the result of any contributions made by husband or his employer during the pendency of this case and prior to the entry of the second amended decree.

As the foregoing demonstrates, the second amended decree is internally inconsistent and the trial court’s intent with respect to the division of the Employee Savings Plan is less than clear. For instance, within the second amended decree, the trial court awarded wife in section 8 “the Employee Savings Plan ... having a total value of $12,008 ...” while mandating husband in section 7 “assign $12,008 of his [Employee Savings Plan] ...

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In Re Marriage of Brown
310 S.W.3d 754 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
971 S.W.2d 943, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 1468, 1998 WL 420231, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-moore-moctapp-1998.