Vinson v. Vinson

243 S.W.3d 418, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 1556, 2007 WL 3341762
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 13, 2007
DocketNo. ED 88702
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 243 S.W.3d 418 (Vinson v. Vinson) 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
Vinson v. Vinson, 243 S.W.3d 418, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 1556, 2007 WL 3341762 (Mo. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

ROY L. RICHTER, Presiding Judge.

Deanna Daughhetee Vinson (“Wife”) appeals the trial court’s judgment dissolving her marriage to Ray Vinson, Jr. (“Husband”). Finding no error, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

This dissolution matter, which had no child custody or support issues and no request for maintenance by either party, consumed eleven days of hearings and over 2,700 pages of transcript. The trial court’s detailed judgment is 54 pages long. The parties relentlessly visited this Court during the pendency of the dissolution and can seemingly agree only that the marriage is irretrievably broken and cannot be preserved.

In 1985, Husband and Wife met and moved in together in 1986. In 1989, Husband, who previously worked in the mortgage industry, formed United Equity Mortgage (“UEM”). Facing financial difficulties, Husband sold the assets of UEM to a new corporation, American Equity Mortgage (“AEM”), for $800 in March of 1992.1 At this time, Wife was listed as president, secretary, treasurer and sole director and shareholder of AEM. Prior to the creation of AEM, Wife had no experience in the mortgage industry. Once AEM was created, Husband operated in the capacity he had for years before at different mortgage companies.

In October of 1992, Husband filed for bankruptcy. In his bankruptcy filings, Husband indicated that he did not own or have an interest in AEM. In July of 1993 Husband and Wife were married. Husband and Wife lived together continuously until their separation in September of 2004.

In its dissolution decree, the trial court concluded that Wife should be awarded a significantly greater share of the parties’ marital property. The trial court divided the marital property of nearly $73,000,000 in such a manner that Wife received over $61,000,000 and Husband received over $11,000,000.2

At issue in this dissolution was the nature and value of AEM. Wife maintained that AEM was her separate property while Husband contended that AEM was marital property. Wife farther contended that Husband was judicially estopped from claiming a marital interest in AEM.

The trial court found that AEM was marital property and awarded the company to Wife. Post-trial, Wife moved to have the trial court reconsider the value of AEM, asserting that changes in the mortgage industry affected the value of AEM between the date of trial and the ultimate date of judgment. The trial court denied this motion. Wife appeals.

II. DISCUSSION

Review of a judgment of dissolution is governed by Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976). The judgment will be affirmed unless there is no substantial evidence to support the judgment, the judgment is against the weight of the evidence or the judgment erroneously declares or applies the law. Hoberock v. Hoberock, 164 S.W.3d 26, 30 (Mo.App. E.D.2005). This court views the evidence and permissible inferences that may be drawn therefrom in a light most favorable [422]*422to the judgment. Gross v. Helm, 98 S.W.3d 85, 87 (Mo.App. E.D.2003).

In her first point, Wife contends the trial court erred by refusing to apply the doctrine of judicial estoppel in that Husband was estopped from asserting an interest in AEM because he had earlier disclaimed any interest during his bankruptcy and during a 1994 deposition. We disagree.

A review of Missouri case law reveals that whether judicial estoppel applies to bar a party from asserting an interest in property during division of property in a dissolution proceeding is an issue of first impression.3 “Judicial estoppel applies to prevent litigants from taking a position in one judicial proceeding, thereby obtaining benefits from that position in that instance and later, in a second proceeding, taking a contrary position in order to obtain benefits from such a contrary position at that time.” Besand v. Gibbar, 982 S.W.2d 808, 810 (Mo.App. E.D.1998). While judicial estoppel cannot be reduced to a precise formula, the United States Supreme Court has indicated that whether judicial estop-pel applies requires the consideration of three factors:

First, a party’s later position must be clearly inconsistent with its earlier position. Second, courts regularly inquire whether the party has succeeded in persuading a court to accept that party’s earlier position.... A third consideration is whether the party seeking to assert an inconsistent position would derive an unfair advantage or impose an unfair detriment on the opposing party if not estopped.

Zedner v. United States, 547 U.S. 489, 126 S.Ct. 1976, 164 L.Ed.2d 749 (2006) (quoting New Hampshire v. Maine, 532 U.S. 742, 750-51, 121 S.Ct. 1808, 149 L.Ed.2d 968 (2001)) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

In applying this doctrine, we must first determine whether Husband’s position taken at the time of dissolution differed from the position taken at the time of bankruptcy. The trial court found that the term “interest” as used in Husband’s bankruptcy petition was so vague in meaning that Husband’s “denial that he had any ‘interest’ [in AEM] ... signified very little.’ ” A review of the record supports this conclusion. Husband’s bankruptcy documents do not define “interest” and we agree with the trial court’s assessment that the meaning of “interest” was not sufficiently clear to justify the application of judicial estop-pel. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in finding that Husband’s later position was not clearly inconsistent with his earlier position and in finding that judicial es-toppel was consequently inappropriate. Having determined that Husband’s initial stance did not conflict with his later stance, we need not discuss the remaining factors.

Wife also alleges that Husband was judicially estopped from asserting an interest in AEM due to statements made during a 1994 deposition. However, as the trial court noted, these statements merely indicated that Husband did not, at that time, own or ever own stock in AEM. This testimony is consistent with Husband’s position asserted in the dissolution. The record shows that at all relevant times, AEM stock was titled in Wife’s name. Conse[423]*423quently, the trial court did not err in finding that judicial estoppel did not apply.

In addition, we note one particular detail about AEM having been titled in Wife’s name. We find unpersuasive Wife’s contention that AEM’s stock was titled in her name, alone, for any reason other than convenience. At a time when Husband faced financial difficulties, Wife was aware that a business about which she knew nothing was being created and that she was to be president, secretary, treasurer, sole director and sole shareholder of that entity. The evidence suggests Wife was aware of the reason for listing her as owner of a mortgage company when she knew nothing about the mortgage business. Point denied.

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Bluebook (online)
243 S.W.3d 418, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 1556, 2007 WL 3341762, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vinson-v-vinson-moctapp-2007.