Wade v. Wade

2005 VT 72, 878 A.2d 303, 178 Vt. 189, 2005 Vt. LEXIS 155
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedJuly 1, 2005
Docket04-045
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 2005 VT 72 (Wade v. Wade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wade v. Wade, 2005 VT 72, 878 A.2d 303, 178 Vt. 189, 2005 Vt. LEXIS 155 (Vt. 2005).

Opinions

Allen, C.J.

¶ 1. (Ret.), Specially Assigned. In this appeal from a final judgment of divorce, husband challenges the family court’s exclusion from the marital estate money given to the parties’ minor child in accordance with the Vermont Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (VUGMA), 14 V.S.A. §§ 3201-3209. Husband also contests the property division as inequitable because the court awarded nearly ninety percent of the marital property to wife. We affirm.

¶ 2. Husband and wife were married in 1991, had one child together, and separated in 2002. The parties, their daughter, and husband’s son from a prior relationship lived in the Town of Waitsfield in a home that wife purchased before the parties married. Since 1985, wife used part of the home to run the Sunshine Montessori School, Inc., a nursery school she founded and continues to operate. Husband has a landscaping business. During the marriage husband also took on seasonal work in the restaurant, construction, and ski industries. Over the last four years, husband earned between $13,000- and $23,000 annually. Wife’s income from the Sunshine School averaged $21,824 in 2000-2002.

¶ 3. In 1996, wife received a series of gifts from her mother. She was given title to her mother’s home, which wife rented out until 2002 when she sold the property. Wife also received $22,000 in cash and put $40,000 from her mother into a VUGMA account for the parties’ minor daughter. The $22,000 gift to wife went into an account in her name only. Wife subsequently exhausted the money in the account by using it to pay for various family expenses. At the time of the divorce hearing, the VUGMA account had a $25,000 balance. Wife testified that she spent approximately $18,000 from the VUGMA account for family expenses, including her own medical expenses.

¶ 4. After wife sold the home her mother gave her in 2002, the parties each received $10,000 from the proceeds. The remaining proceeds of $59,000 were placed into escrow pending distribution in the divorce proceeding. After her mother died, wife used some of her inheritance to purchase a twenty-nine foot sailboat and a catamaran for the family. Husband spent time repairing and maintaining the boats for the family, and used his carpentry and other handyman skills to maintain and improve the parties’ residence. The family also owned a camper, [192]*192and husband held a half interest in a seasonal camp in Rochester, Vermont.

¶ 5. Throughout the marriage, wife paid the mortgage on the marital residence and most of the household expenses. Husband paid half of the household utilities and charged many of his own expenses, and those of his landscaping business, to credit cards. At the time the parties separated, husband had over $23,000 in personal and business credit card debt. Wife’s credit card debt was a fraction of husband’s. After separating, wife remained in the marital home, and husband moved into a friend’s home where he acts as caretaker.

¶ 6. Wife filed for divorce in October 2002. She sought primary custody of the parties’ daughter and most of the parties’ property, although wife agreed that husband and their daughter should have liberal contact. Husband wanted a shared parenting arrangement — one week every other week — and asked the court to split their property roughly fifty-fifty. Both parties hired expert witnesses to testify about the value of the Sunshine School. It was undisputed that husband’s business had no value.

¶ 7. The court issued a written order following a hearing in December 2003. Wife received approximately ninety percent of the marital property, including the parties’ home and all of its equity, the catamaran, the camper, and the escrowed proceeds from the sale of her mother’s home. The court awarded husband the sailboat, $10,000 from the sale proceeds that he had already received, his interest in the Rochester camp, and his tools. Crediting wife’s expert witness, the court found that the Sunshine School, while valuable to wife personally, had no market value. The court also concluded that the VUGMA account was not subject to distribution because it was the property of the parties’ daughter. As to parental responsibilities for the minor child, the court adopted the arrangement set forth in the parties’ stipulated temporary order, which allowed the child to spend overnights with husband every Wednesday and every other weekend from Friday until Monday morning.

¶ 8. In support of the property award, the court explained that wife had lived in the parties’ home since 1985, six years before the parties’ married. Wife paid the mortgage and property taxes. She also paid for the parties’ two boats and contributed all of her income to other household expenses. The court acknowledged that what money husband earned was spent primarily on the household, but it noted that husband “never earned much in any year.” The court found that husband had not “followed a conventional career; instead he has enjoyed [193]*193the freedom of working on a seasonal basis and taking time when he wishes to work on his own business.” The court found that husband could earn more money working a full-time job in construction or some other business if he chose.

¶ 9. In his appeal, husband first claims that the court should have distributed the VUGMA account because it was part of the marital estate. He argues that wife never executed any trust documents to establish an irrevocable account for their daughter, and. that she used the money for her own purposes. Therefore, husband contends, the funds in the account are marital property subject to distribution in the divorce. The family court’s fact findings on the VUGMA account will stand on appeal if they are supported by any credible evidence in the record. Hayden v. Hayden, 2003 VT 97, ¶ 14, 176 Vt. 52, 838 A.2d 59. We will uphold the court’s legal conclusions if supported by the findings. Payrits v. Payrits, 171 Vt. 50, 53, 757 A.2d 469, 472 (2000).

¶ 10. Contrary to husband’s claim, establishing a VUGMA does not require the execution of trust documents to make the gift irrevocable. The VUGMA’s purpose is to provide a simple procedure for gifting property to minors. See In re Marriage of Hendricks, 681 N.E.2d 777, 781 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997) (construing Indiana’s Uniform Gifts to Minors Act). For cash gifts, the Act requires only that the donor pay or deliver the money “to a broker or a bank for credit to an account in the name of the donor, another adult person, an adult member of the minor’s family, a guardian of the minor or a bank with trust powers, followed, in substance, by the words: ‘as custodian for (name of minor) under the Vermont Gifts to Minors Act.’” 14 V.S.A. § 3202(a)(3). Once made according to statutory procedures, the gift is irrevocable, and the child possesses an indefeasible interest in the property held in the VUGMA account. Id. § 3203(a); In re Marriage of Hendricks, 681 N.E.2d at 781; In re Marriage of Agostinelli, 620 N.E.2d 1215, 1220-21 (Ill. App. Ct. 1993). The account’s custodian has authority under the Act to spend “so much of or all the custodial property as the custodian deems advisable for the support, maintenance, education and benefit of the minor.” 14 V.S.A. § 3204(b). Because the funds in a VUGMA are the child’s property, they are not part of the marital estate subject to equitable distribution in a divorce proceeding.

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Bluebook (online)
2005 VT 72, 878 A.2d 303, 178 Vt. 189, 2005 Vt. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wade-v-wade-vt-2005.