Wright v. Wright

1 S.W.3d 52, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 1765, 1999 WL 687755
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 7, 1999
DocketWD 56935
StatusPublished
Cited by64 cases

This text of 1 S.W.3d 52 (Wright v. Wright) 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
Wright v. Wright, 1 S.W.3d 52, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 1765, 1999 WL 687755 (Mo. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

EDWIN H. SMITH, Presiding Judge.

Michebe L. Wright appeals the judgment of the Jackson County Circuit Court dissolving her marriage to the respondent, Stephen James Wright, as to its division of the parties’ marital property. In entering its judgment, the court adopted the findings, recommendations, and proposed judgment of the family law commissioner, Sherrill Rosen, pursuant to § 487.030, 1 RSMo Supp.1997.

*55 The appellant raises two points on appeal. In Point I, she claims that the trial court erred in dividing the parties’ marital property because, in doing so, it erroneously applied § 452.380 in that it failed to value the respondent’s stock purchase and savings plan (the savings plan) and pension investment plan (the pension plan) as of the date of trial, resulting in an unjust and inequitable distribution of marital property. In Point II, she claims that the court erred in dividing the parties’ marital property because the division was unjust and inequitable in that: (1) it allocated all of the marital debt to her; and (2) it awarded her, as a share of the marital property, the $4,000 proceeds from the sale of the parties’ 1991 Honda Civic.

We reverse and remand.

Facts

The parties were married on June 4, 1992, and separated on November 10, 1995. On November 14, 1995, the appellant filed her petition for dissolution of marriage in the Circuit Court of Jackson County seeking, inter alia, to dissolve the marriage and divide the marital property. On January 22, 1996, the respondent filed his answer and cross-petition.

A hearing on the appellant’s petition was held on November 5 and December 6, 1996, before Commissioner Rosen. At the hearing, the appellant testified that she began working for AT & T on August 6, 1990, and continued to do so and that through this employment had accumulated savings in a 401(k) plan. With respect to her 401(k) plan, evidence was introduced showing an account balance of $ 3,846.63 as of June 30, 1996. There was no evidence of the plan’s value as of the date of trial.

The respondent testified that he began working for the Sherwin-Williams Company in 1984 and that through this employment had accumulated assets in a stock purchase and savings plan and a pension investment plan. The parties stipulated that the respondent’s non-marital portion of the savings plan, as of June 1992 when they were married, was 77.289 shares. With respect to the savings plan, three monthly reports, containing information concerning the value of the stocks in the plan as of three different dates, were introduced into evidence by stipulation of the parties. The first report, covering the period of June 1 through 30, 1992, showed that the respondent, as of June 30, 1992, had 77.289 shares of Sherwin-Williams stock valued at $3,616.42. The second report, covering January 1 through 31, 1993, showed that, as of January 31, 1993, he had 161.131 shares valued at $5,253.30. The last report, covering September 1 through 30,1995, showed that he had, as of September 30, 1995, 348.529 shares valued at $15,340.51. Neither party offered any evidence as to the number of shares in the savings plan and their value as of the date of trial.

As to the respondent’s non-marital portion of his pension plan, the parties stipulated to a value of $4,173.15, as of June 1992. As in the case of the savings plan, three monthly reports were also introduced as to the pension plan. The first report, covering June 1 through 30, 1992, reflected a current market value, as of June 30, 1992, of $4,173.15. The second report, covering February 1 through 28, 1993, showed that the plan’s value was $ 4,262.50. The third report, covering October 1 through 31, 1995, showed a value, as of October 31, 1995, of $8,273.44. As in the case of the savings plan, no evidence was introduced as to the value of the pension plan as of the date of trial.

The appellant testified that as of the date of the trial, the parties had several outstanding debts. The first was a loan from Providean Bancorp in the amount of $8,400, which was taken out by the appellant in August 1995. The appellant testified that $900 of the loan was spent on paying off the balance due on the parties’ First Card Visa credit card; $5,000 was deposited into the parties’ joint checking *56 account; and the rest, $2,500, was used to pay off a prior balance on the parties’ Discover Card credit card. The appellant testified that while the respondent did not apply for the loan, he was aware that she had done so and approved. However, the respondent testified that he had no knowledge of the loan until after the appellant filed her petition for dissolution of marriage.

In addition to the debt to Providean Bancorp, the appellant testified that the parties owed $2,660 on their Discover Card credit card, which debt had been incurred prior to the parties’ separation in order to pay off a loan from Boatmen’s Bank. She further testified that she received a $7,000 loan from her father immediately following her separation from the respondent and that she spent the money on house and car payments, groceries, and fixing a broken water pipe. She asked the trial court to set off the loan from her father to her.

The appellant testified that .in May 1996, she sold the parties’ 1991 Honda Civic for $5,000. Of that amount, she testified that she spent $1,000 to pay off the loan on the vehicle and, with the remaining $4,000, paid off debts that she had acquired since the parties’ separation and to buy the parties’ son summer clothes.

On January 8, 1997, Commissioner Ro-sen issued her findings, recommendations and proposed judgment, inter alia, dissolving the parties’ marriage and dividing the marital and non-marital property. In her findings, she found that the non-marital portion of the appellant’s 401(k) plan was ⅝ of its present value and that the respondent was entitled to one-half of the remaining balance of the plan. In regard to the respondent’s savings plan, she found that it was valued at $15,340.51 and that $3,616.42, the value of the stock held by the respondent at the time of his marriage to the appellant, was his non-marital property, with the balance, $11,724.09, being marital property, with the respondent being awarded $4,875.74 of this amount. As to the respondent’s pension plan, Commissioner Rosen found that it was valued at $8,273.44, of which $4,173.15, the plan’s value at the time of the parties’ marriage, was the respondent’s non-marital property, with the remaining balance, $4,100.29, being marital property. Of this amount, the appellant was awarded $2,050.14 as marital property.

With respect to the sale of the parties’ Honda Civic, Commissioner Rosen found that the $4,000 sale proceeds remaining after the appellant paid off the loan on the vehicle was marital property, which was credited to the appellant as marital property. The commissioner found that the house in which the parties lived during their marriage was the respondent’s non-marital property and that he was solely liable for the loan on the house, although later in the proposed judgment, she referred to this debt as a marital debt. The commissioner also found that the respondent had “no liability” as to the Providean Bancorp loan of $8,400, the $2,600 owed on the Discover Card credit card, and the $7,000 loan from the appellant’s father.

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Bluebook (online)
1 S.W.3d 52, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 1765, 1999 WL 687755, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-wright-moctapp-1999.