Timothy I. Hooker v. Nancy Hooker

174 So. 3d 507, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 12761, 2015 WL 5026074
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 26, 2015
Docket4D13-1841
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 174 So. 3d 507 (Timothy I. Hooker v. Nancy Hooker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Timothy I. Hooker v. Nancy Hooker, 174 So. 3d 507, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 12761, 2015 WL 5026074 (Fla. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

FORST, J.

Appellant Timothy Hooker (“the Husband”) appeals the amended final judgment of dissolution, dissolving his marriage . to Appellee Nancy Hooker (“the Wife”). The Husband challenges the trial court’s finding as to the Wife’s interest in certain properties acquired during the marriage by the Husband’s separate non-marital funds. The Wife cross-appeals, challenging certain findings as to division of the properties at issue by percentages, one of the Husband’s bank accounts, and the trial court’s denial of her request for attorneys’ fees. We agree with the Husband that there is a lack of evidence to support the trial court’s finding that the Husband gifted an interest in the Hooker Hollow property to the Wife, and we reverse on that issue. However, we disagree with his same contention as -to the Lake George- property, and we thus affirm on that issue. We . also affirm on all issues raised in the Wife’s cross-appeal. ■ .

Background

The parties were married in 1987 in New York. They did not have any significant outside employment during the marriage. Instead, they were provided for financially by the Husband’s pre-marital trust fund assets and spent their time raising their children and training, breeding, and showing horses.

The parties executed a prenuptial agreement to keep their substantial pre-marital assets separate. The agreement listed certain assets to be kept separate from the marital estate, “[tjogether with any and all identifiable appreciation, substitution, improvements, additions and/or replacements of or to any of the property described.” The document further provided, “This Agreement shall not prevent either party from making interyivos or testamentary provisions for the benefit of the other inconsistent herewith.”

In 1989, the parties moved to Florida. The Wife testified that they heard about vacant land being available in Wellington. Interested persons needed to‘purchase a lottery ticket for the chance to purchase one of the lots. The Wife’s father funded the purchase of the lottery ticket. The parties obtained the option to purchase a lot and the Husband did so with non-marital funds. While only the Husband signed the original purchase money mortgage for the land and the promissory note, *510 both parties signed a later mortgage document for a construction loan.

This property was developed into a working horse farm and home. The parties lived in an apartment above the stables, which was the marital home throughout the majority of the marriage. The Wife was in charge of furnishing the apartment and helped clean and care for the stables and horses. The Husband also was involved in the day-to-day management and training of the horses as part of the business.

Later, the Wife expressed a desire to have a summer home in the northeast to be near her childhood home and to have greater access to the horse shows in the region. In 1997, after about two years of searching, the Husband purchased a vacant lot in Lake George, New York with his non-marital assets while the Wife was in Florida with the children. The Husband sent the Wife a card for their tenth wedding anniversary with a picture of the lot. The mortgage on that property was in the Husband’s name alone and the Wife never signed any of the debt related to that loan.

The Wife was deeply involved in designing and building the home at Lake George. She also purchased some furnishings and incidentals for the home. The Wife believed she owned the home with the Husband because it was a family home where they lived. The Husband did not remember telling the Wife whether she was an owner of the Lake George property.

Also in 1997, the Husband sought to turn the Florida property into a corporation and transfer part of the title to another entity. Only the Husband was listed as the seller, but both parties signed the warranty deed transferring title of the property to the new corporation, known as Hooker Hollow, LLC. 1 The deed specified that this property was not the Wife’s homestead, and the Wife signed the deed only to release any and all homestead rights she may have had to the property. The Wife did not believe she was giving up any interest she believed she had in the property by signing the deed and the Husband never told her that she did not have any interest in the property. However, only the Husband’s name appears in the Articles of Incorporation document for Hooker Hollow, LLC as an officer/director of that entity, which now owned the whole property. Fifty percent of the stock of the corporation was then transferred to Trelawny Farm. The Husband paid off the mortgage on the property with the proceeds from the sale.

In 2010, Trelawny Farm triggered a buy/sell provision in the contract to buy the other 50 percent interest in Hooker Hollow. The same day the contract for sale was signed, the Wife filed for dissolution of marriage. At the same time, the Wife filed a lis pendens on Hooker Hollow and a motion to freeze the proceeds of the sale of that property pending the outcome of the dissolution.

During the pendency of the dissolution proceedings, the parties entered into an agreed order that the Wife would receive $1 million from the sale proceeds of Hooker Hollow at closing, representing a partial equitable distribution payment. The parties reserved all claims and defenses as to this distribution for trial. This allowed for the completion of the sale of Hooker Hollow to Trelawny Farm. As in the first transaction, only the Husband was recognized as a selling party, but the Wife signed a transfer deed waiving any homestead rights she may have had in the property. Also attached to the sale docu *511 ments was an affidavit of the Husband, swearing to the fact that the Husband and Trelawny Farm are the only members of Hooker Hollow, LLC and have the only interests in the property.

Following a trial on the petition for dissolution, the trial court issued a detailed final judgment. Relevant to the appeals, the trial court determined that Husband had traced all of his assets acquired during the marriage back to his pre-marital assets, including the Hooker Hollow and Lake George properties. However, the court found that the Wife had an interest in the Hooker Hollow and Lake George properties through interspousal gift. As such, the trial court awarded the Wife 50% of the values of Hooker Hollow and Lake George.

The Husband moved for rehearing, primarily challenging the trial court’s determinations as to the interspousal gift to the Wife of an interest in Hooker Hollow and Lake George. The motion was granted after a non-evidentiary hearing was held.

The trial court then issued a more detailed amended final judgment. The trial court maintained its finding that, although the Hooker Hollow and Lake George properties were purchased with the Husband’s non-marital assets and were titled in his name alone, they should be considered marital assets because the Husband made an interspousal gift of an interest to the Wife, with their actions showing joint ownership. However, based on the rehearing, the trial court determined that an unequal distribution was warranted because of the substantial financial contribution of the Husband.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
174 So. 3d 507, 2015 Fla. App. LEXIS 12761, 2015 WL 5026074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/timothy-i-hooker-v-nancy-hooker-fladistctapp-2015.