ALIMONY IS NOT FOR EQUALIZING THE DIVISION
February 22, 2012 § Leave a comment
What is the proper role of alimony vis a vis equitable distribution? In Williamson v. Williamson, decided by the COA on January 10, 2012, Judge Carlton’s opinion stated:
¶21. The record reflects that in equitably dividing the marital property, the chancellor erroneously applied the Armstrong factors by awarding Mary alimony in order to create equalization of the parties’ incomes. The chancellor then ordered Will to pay Mary $594 per month to be applied toward the mortgage on the marital home; and, in addition to that amount, the chancellor awarded Mary $200 per month in periodic alimony, for a total of $794, or approximately $800, until the former home sold. [Footnote omitted] As evidenced by the chancellor’s findings, the chancellor accomplished the ordered equitable division of the marital property by aid of an award of periodic alimony in favor of Mary in order to make the parties’ financial situations “equalized.” The record shows, as set forth in the excerpts herein, that the chancellor had not completed an equitable division of the marital property prior to considering alimony. In accordance with precedent, the equitable division of the marital property must be completed prior to determining if either spouse suffers a deficit in the division of the marital estate warranting an award of alimony. The record in this case shows, however, that the chancellor used alimony to equalize the parties’ future incomes instead of awarding alimony based upon need existing after completion of an equitable division of the marital property.
¶22. Mississippi now embraces the process of equitable division of the marital property. In applying the “equitable” division of the marital property in accordance with the Ferguson factors, alimony fails to serve as the primary method to equalize property division. See Lowrey, 25 So. 3d at 292 (¶44) (“[A]limony has become a secondary remedy to property division . . . . ‘One of the goals of adopting equitable distribution was to alleviate the need for alimony.’”). Alimony, instead, assists in the event the chancellor determines that a need exists by a spouse after the completion of the equitable division of the marital property. See id. at 293 (¶44) (“If the situation is such that an equitable division of marital property, considered with each party’s non-marital assets, leaves a deficit for one party, then alimony based on the value of non-marital assets should be considered.”); George v. George, 22 So. 3d 424, 428 (¶7) (Miss. Ct. App. 2009) (“[A]n award of periodic alimony is based upon need.”).
The proper procedure follows this sequence:
- Determine which assets are marital and which are non-marital;
- Adjudicate the values of both marital and non-marital assets;
- Apply the Ferguson factors to the proof in the record to determine whether there should be an equitable division of the marital estate, and, if so, how it should be accomplished;
- If the equitable division of the marital estate, considered with each party’s non-marital property, leaves a deficit for one party, then the court should analyze the evidence in light of the Armstrong factors to determine whether alimony should be awarded.
From a pratice standpoint, then, here is what you need to give the chancellor so that she or he can do the job:
- An itemization of all assets, showing which your client claims to be marital and which your client claims to be non-marital. The best way to present this itemization is through lists introduced into evidence, rather than just a narration by your client. Have your client testify as to her basis for putting each asset into either category.
- Assign values to each asset. In advance of trial have your client assign values to each asset. Real property, heavy equipment, leaseholds, buildings, fine art and jewelry, business operations and interests, and other assets other than automobiles and ordinary personal property should have values established by appraisals. Again, this should be done by lists and documentation as much as possible, although experts may be needed as to some items.
- Offer proof as to each Ferguson factor. Have a copy of the factors to use as an outline as you develop testimony at trial. You might also want to look at the Cheatham factors for lump-sum alimony.
- Whether your client is trying to get alimony or trying to resist it, put on proof as to the Armstrong factors. Have a copy of the factors to use as an outline as you develop testimony at trial.
In my opinion, one of the chief causes of failure on appeal is that the lawyers do an inadequate job of making a record that the chancellor can use in making a decision. This forces the trial judge to have to patch something together in an attempt to cover everything, and the result is a flaw that the COA will find reversible. Make your record as airtight as the truth allows.
MAKING AN END RUN AROUND PIERCE
February 7, 2012 § Leave a comment
In Pierce v. Pierce, 42 So.3d 658 (Miss. App. 2010), the chancellor in a divorce had ordered the husband to pay the wife’s mortgage note until her child by a previous relationship graduated from high school. The COA remanded the case on other grounds, but instructed the chancellor not to tie the payment of the mortgage to any life event of the daughter, since she was not the payor’s offspring. In essence, the order amounted to an improper award of child support.
But what about where the child is the child of the payor? And what about where the payment is not any form of child support?
In Brooks v. Brooks, decided by the COA on December 13, 2011, the payor, Brandon, argued à la Pierce that the trial court had improperly converted payment of the mortgage note into additional child support when the judge tied Brandon’s obligation for mortgage payments to his youngest child’s attainment of the age of 18. He contended that the trial court’s actions were in violation of Pierce.
The COA rejected the argument that Pierce was applicable on the basis that there was no dispute that the child in question was his.
The court went beyond that point to add some significant language:
¶11. We cannot find that the mortgage payment was a form of additional child support. The award in the chancellor’s order was given under the heading, “Equitable Distribution,” and it was ordered after a discussion of the Ferguson factors. The chancellor ordered that when the house is sold, Brandon should receive 60% of the equity, and Dawn should receive 6 40%. The chancellor reasoned that “Brandon’s larger percentage will reflect his payment of debt, taxes[,] and hazard insurance over the next sixteen or so years . . . .” The upkeep and maintenance of the property are Dawn’s responsibility, except for repairs in excess of $1,000, which are the equal responsibility of both parties. Since the mortgage payment was part of the equitable distribution of the assets and Brandon will receive a portion of the equity back when the house is sold, the house payment is not the equivalent of child support. This issue is without merit.
The significance of this language is that it points a direction around Pierce via equitable distribution. If you can persuade your judge to consider mortgage payment as part of the equitable distribution, you can tie the payment to any life event of anyone. This can be helpful in a step-child situation as in Pierce itself, or where there are other child-related obligations not related to children of the parties. And just how do you pitch it? Offer the court through your client’s testimony a balance sheet showing your proposed equitable distribution. The judge might buy it.
MAKING YOUR UNCONTESTED DIVORCE BULLETPROOF
January 30, 2012 § 1 Comment
We’ve talked here before about whether you should make a record when you present an uncontested divorce.
In Luse v. Luse, 992 So.2d 659, 661 (Miss. App. 2008), the COA held that an appellant who had failed to answer, defend or otherwise appear in the case could not raise for the first time on appeal issues about the sufficiency of the chancellor’s findings.
So what happens when the defaulted party does appear via a timely motion under MRCP 59, say, and asks the chancellor to set aside the judgment because she failed to make the required findings of fact under Ferguson, or Armstrong, or any of the other required checklists of factors? That’s what happened in the case of Lee v. Lee in the chancery court of Desoto County. Corey Lee showed up late for his divorce trial, popping in just as the chancellor was in the middle of his opinion dividing the marital estate, awarding custody, and assessing child support. Corey enlisted a lawyer who filed a timely MRCP 59 motion.
In his motion, Corey challenged the judge’s ruling on the basis that it did not address the Ferguson factors for equitable distribution. The judgment did state that it was based on consideration of the Ferguson factors, but did not spell out the evidence relied on as to each applicable factor as required under Sandlin v. Sandlin, 699 So.2d 1198, 1204 (Miss. 1997).
On appeal the COA affirmed, citing Luse.
The Supreme Court granted cert, and in an opinion rendered January 26, 2012, in Lee v. Lee, Justice Dickinson said for the court:
¶7. A divorce judgment entered when a party fails to appear is “a special kind of default judgment.” [Mayoza v. Mayoza, 526 So.2d 547, 548 (Miss. 1988)]. And to obtain relief from such judgments, absent parties are required to raise the issues in post-trial motions under Rules 52, 59, or 60 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. [Mayoza, 548-49.] Although Corey filed a Rule 59 motion, the Court of Appeals held that the motion did not address the equitable-distribution issue; and, therefore, the issue was procedurally barred.
¶8. In its holding, the Court of Appeals relied on Luse v. Luse, in which, John Luse neither answered his wife’s complaint for divorce nor appeared at the divorce hearing. The chancellor granted John’s wife a divorce and awarded her ownership of marital property. John never filed a timely post-trial motion challenging the property division, so he first raised the issue on appeal, and the Court of Appeals properly held that John’s claim was procedurally barred.
¶9. But unlike John Luse, Corey Lee raised the issue before the chancellor. In his Rule 59 motion, Corey argued that the division of martial property was inequitable. At the hearing on the motion, Corey’s attorney specifically argued that the chancellor had failed to make findings of fact and conclusions of law, as required by Ferguson. Therefore, Corey is not procedurally barred from raising this issue on appeal.
* * *
¶13. By failing to appear at the hearing, Corey forfeited his right to present evidence and prosecute his divorce complaint. But he did not forfeit the right to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence or the judgment. And whether absent or present at the trial, the appropriate time to challenge a judgment is after it has been entered. Corey did so in his Rule 59 motion and at the hearing following it. The fact that Corey failed to attend the divorce trial does not relieve the chancellor of his duty to base his decision on the evidence, regardless of by whom presented, nor did it nullify this Court’s mandate in Ferguson.
The decision reversed the COA and the chancellor, setting aside the divorce.
So how do you avoid the same trap the next time you present an uncontested divorce? My suggestion is that you make a point of putting on proof of each factor, and prepare proposed findings of fact and conclusions of fact, incorporating them in the judgment you hand to the chancellor at the conclusion of the hearing. Make specific findings as to each checklist factor that applies in your case. If you are asking for equitable distribution, address the Ferguson factors. For custody, address the Albright factors. For alimony, address Armstrong. And so on through as many as apply in your case. You know in advance (or you should know) what your client’s testimony will be on each point, so simply wrap it up into a neat package for the judge. In the alternative, you lazy lawyers can appear and just put on the proof and ask the chancellor to do it. If the chancellor is in a benevolent mood, he or she might do it for you. Or you may be dispatched to do it yourself and come back another time.
THE VALUE OF VALUATION
November 17, 2011 § 3 Comments
Some lawyers like to play a cat-and-mouse game in which they go light on some proof, expecting the chancellor to fill in the blanks in their client’s favor. Sometimes that strategy fails calamitously.
The latest case in point is Powell v. Powell, decided by the COA on November 8, 2011, an equitable distribution case. Sherida Powell and her husband James were locked in a battle over the marital estate, the major components of which were the marital residence, some future payments from the sale of a business, and James’s retirement account. The chancellor decided the values based on the proof, and sherida hit the appeal button, complaining that the judge’s adjudication of values was incorrect.
The COA, via Judge Irving, disagreed with Sherida. The opinion is instructive about what works and does not work as proof of values, so I am quoting it here:
¶20. Sherida first attacks the value that the chancery court assigned to the marital home, which James testified was worth $80,000 before he renovated it prior to his marriage to Sherida. Sherida complains that numerous documents could have been provided to prove the value of the home. While such documents could have been provided, they were not–not by James, and not by Sherida. Sherida was entitled to provide whatever documentation she could obtain regarding the value of the home; in the absence of such, we decline to find error with the chancery court’s valuation of the home. * * *
¶21. Sherida next complains that the chancellor erred in “failing to calculate the value” of the future payments on the promissory note from ASAP’s sale. We note that Sherida made no effort to provide a calculation of the future value of the payments. In the absence of any valuation of the ASAP promissory note payments, we decline to hold the chancery court in error in its valuation of the payments.
¶22. Sherida also complains that James’s retirement account should have been considered a marital asset. In her brief, Sherida concedes that the only evidence as to the value of the account came from her trial exhibit 31. That exhibit was simply a summary of Sherida’s valuation of certain assets, including James’s retirement account. It appears that Sherida’s “value” for the account is simply the percentage that she believes she should receive of each of his monthly disability checks. This did not provide the chancery court with an adequate valuation of the retirement account. No other evidence was presented by either party that conclusively established the account’s value. Under these circumstances, the chancery court did not err in declining to evaluate the account as a marital asset.
A few nuggets from this case:
- The chancellor has no duty to go out and develop your proof for you. It’s up to you to put adequate proof in the record to support your client’s position. If you don’t do so, the appellate courts are not going to entertain your complaint that the judge should have found a different way.
- The chancellor can pick and choose what to believe from equivalent proof. In other words, if each party simply lobs up a guess as to a value, the judge can pick which one to swing at and hit. It’s up to you to come up with weightier proof, like an appraisal from a qualified appraiser, or some other weightier source, if you want to have the upper hand as to values.
- If you want the judge to calculate future values or some such, then offer an expert, or a stipulated table, or something of the like. Don’t expect the trial judge to perform actuarial and trigonometric calculations when you have not provided the template to do so.
- If you fail to provide adequate proof of the valuation of a retirement account and the parties’ relative contributions to it, you do so at your client’s peril. Here, the fallout was a finding by the trial court that the account was not marital. In Pierce v. Pierce, 42 So.3d 658 (Miss.App. 2010), the fallout was a remand for further findings of fact.
- If you don’t put evidence into the record, don’t expect to be able to argue about it on appeal. And don’t expect the trial judge to rule in your favor, either.
- Once again … the more difficult you make it for the trial judge to figure out, the less likely you will prevail, as I have often said here before.
- When you have a valuation case, jump on it early. Get your client to bring you as many documents as possible, such as account balances, valuations, appraisals and financial statements. Get tax returns with depreciation info. Collect closing statements and property tax data. Use discovery to get admissions as to admissibility and authenticity of documents, and to admit values. Discover the existence of any other documents. If valuation will be contested, line up your experts. And remember that experts must be designated no later than 60 days before trial, per UCCR 1.10, if you were requested to disclose them in discovery.
There’s another interesting aspect to this case, and you can read about it here.
EQUITABLE DIVISION AND MARITAL FAULT
August 24, 2011 § 5 Comments
It is almost a platitude of Mississippi law that, “Courts may divide marital assets between divorcing spouses in a fair and equitable manner — equal division is not required.” Bell, Mississippi Family Law, § 6.01[4].
The sticking point is where to draw the line between “fair and equitable” and “equal.” The appellate decisions come in all sizes, colors and flavors.
Bond v. Bond, decided by the COA August 16, 2011, is the latest iteration on the point. In that case, Jimmie Lee proved that his wife, Donna, had committed adultery during their four-year marriage. The chancellor awarded Jimmie Lee 90% of the equitable division, and gave Donna the remaining 10%. Jimmie Lee appealed, aggrieved that Donna got such a generous share, and charged that the chancellor erred in failing to make sufficient findings of Donna’s adultery.
Judge Maxwell’s opinion sets out the applicable law about as clearly as can be done:
In ordering an equitable distribution of property, chancellors must apply the Ferguson factors, which include:
(1) contribution to the accumulation of property, (2) dissipation of assets, (3) the market or emotional value of assets subject to distribution, (4) the value of assets not subject to distribution, (5) the tax and economic consequences of the distribution, (6) the extent to which property division may eliminate the need for alimony, (7) the financial security needs of the parties, and (8) any other factor that in equity should be considered.
Hults v. Hults, 11 So. 3d 1273, 1281 (¶36) (Miss. Ct. App. 2009) (citing Ferguson v. Ferguson, 639 So. 2d 921, 928-29 (Miss. 1994)). Chancellors should also consider each party’s marital fault. Singley v. Singley, 846 So. 2d 1004, 1013-14 (¶26) (Miss. 2002). There is a presumption that “the contributions and efforts of the marital partners, whether economic, domestic or otherwise are of equal value.” Hemsley v. Hemsley, 639 So. 2d 909, 915 (Miss. 1994). In reviewing a chancellor’s findings, we do not conduct a Ferguson analysis anew. Goellner v. Goellner, 11 So. 3d 1251, 1264 (¶45) (Miss. Ct. App. 2009). Rather, we examine the chancellor’s judgment and the record to ensure the chancellor applied the correct legal standard and did not commit an abuse of discretion. Id. at 1266 (¶52).
In Carrow v. Carrow, 642 So. 2d 901, 905 (Miss. 1994), the Mississippi Supreme Court held that a chancellor erred in finding a wife’s “adulterous conduct precluded her from being entitled to any form of equitable distribution of the property upon divorce.” The Carrow court instructed that chancellors should not view equitable distribution as a means to punish the offending spouse for marital misconduct. See id. at 904 (citing Chamblee v. Chamblee, 637 So. 2d 850, 863 (Miss. 1994)). Rather, “marital misconduct is a viable factor entitled to be given weight by the chancellor when the misconduct places a burden on the stability and harmony of the marital and family relationship.” Id. at 904-05 (citing Ferguson, 639 So. 2d at 927).
The court found that the chancellor had, indeed, taken into consideration Donna’s fault when he considered the Ferguson factor dealing with the parties’ relative contributions to the stability and harmony of the marriage. The chancellor had found under that factor that:
“Neither Jimmie nor Donna did all they could to provide stability and harmony to the family. Donna became infatuated with another man and her romantic relationship with this third party caused the dissolution of the marriage.”
So here are a few points to ponder about this decision:
- The rule that equitable division does not require an equal division, but only a fair division, is alive and well.
- A 90-10 split in equitable distribution will be found fair if the judge addresses all of the Ferguson factors and justifies the decision.
- The judge is only required to address all of the Ferguson factors, not to analyze them in excruciating, lengthy detail. In this case, the chancellor’s two-sentence recitation was found adequate to support the award.
This case reminded me of the student who got a 90 on a test and wanted the teacher to re-grade it in hopes of an even better grade. Jimmie Lee’s “grade” stayed the same after the appeal, but it’s somewhat of a head-scratcher why he appealed in the first place, given the pretty clear holding in the Carrow case.
UPDATED CHECKLIST OF CHECKLISTS
May 27, 2011 § 5 Comments
Proving your case by proving certain factors is a fact of legal life in Mississippi. I’ve referred to it as trial by checklist. If you’re not putting on proof of the factors when they apply in your case, you are wasting your and the court’s time, as well as your client’s money, and you are committing malpractice to boot.
Many lawyers have told me that they print out these checklists and use them at trial. I encourage you to copy these checklists and use them in your trial notebooks. And while you’re at it, you’re free to copy any post for your own personal use, but not for commercial use. Lawyers have told me that they are building notebooks tabbed with various subjects and inserting copies of my posts (along with other useful material, I imagine). Good. If it improves practice and makes your (and my) job easier and more effective, I’m all for it.
Here is an updated list of links to the checklists I’ve posted:
Doing an accounting in a probate matter.
Income tax dependency exemption.
Modification of child support.
ANOTHER NAIL IN THE GOODWILL COFFIN
February 8, 2011 § 2 Comments
“Goodwill” is the term used in accounting to describe the “prudent value” of a business over and above that attributable to the value of its assets, such as its reputation with customers and the value of its brand. An example would be the value that Coca Cola’s planet-wide brand recognition adds to the company’s value over and above the value of its assets.
Ever since the landmark decision in Singley v. Singley, 846 So.2d 1004 (Miss. 2002), in which the supreme court reversed the court of appeals and held that goodwill is not to be considered in business valuations for divorce, the courts have wrestled with the breadth of that decision. Singley, which involved a dental practice (in Meridian), accurately reflects the way professional practices are valued by valuation experts, who consider that the value of a professional practice depends heavily on the participation in it of its principal, so that it has no goodwill. The question lingered, however, as to how the court would apply the no-goodwill concept in other business valuations.
It is beyond the scope of this post to analyze Singley’s progeny, the most notable of which are Watson v. Watson, 882 So.2d 95 (Miss. 2004), and Yelverton v. Yelverton, 961 So.2d 19 (Miss. 2007). If you’re going to handle any divorce cases involving a busines, you will have to acquaint yourself with those decisions.
This post address the latest pronouncement on goodwill, which comes in the case of Lewis v. Lewis, handed down by the supreme court on February 3, 2011.
Lewis, which was before the court on certiorari from the court of appeals, involved valuation of a business enterprise jointly owned by the divorcing husband and wife to develop residential real estate. The court of appeals had reversed and remanded for the chancellor to correct errors in the valuation of the business. On cert, the supreme court, by Justice Randolph, upheld the court of appeals’ reversal and remand in part, but reversed the court of appeals to add that the trial court was precluded from considering goodwill in its analysis of the valuation.
In a cogent dissent, Justice Kitchens pointed out that Singley and the cases following it had correctly appled the exclusion of goodwill to the professional practices involved in those cases. The business in Lewis, however, was not a professional practice. Kitchens urged the court to recognize that Singley should be limited to solo professional practices or businesses that are closely analogous.
Justice Randolph referred sympathetically to Justice Kitchens’ dissent, pointing out that he had raised similar concerns in his own dissent in Watson to no avail. He pointed out that, if Singley lacked clarity on the point, the court’s decisions in Watson and Yelverton laid aside any doubt, and that goodwill is not to be considered. He went on to say that “Stare decisis demands this result.” Waller, Carlson and Graves joined Randolph in the opinion. Lamar and Chandler concurred. Only Kitchens dissented. Pierce did not participate.
Our appellate courts have not been presented with a business valuation involving nationally or even regionally recognized business entities based in Mississippi on a par with companies such as Viking, or Mississippi Chemical, or Structural Steel or Yates Construction. In such a case, it would be difficult to understand how the court could overlook “enterprise goodwill” as opposed to the “personal goodwill” in the precedent to this point. Yet our case law now is that any form of goodwill is to be ignored in valuing businesses in divorces.
THE FAMILY USE DOCTRINE IS ALIVE AND WELL
January 18, 2011 § 3 Comments
It is well settled in our jurisprudence that a gift to or inheritance by one of the parties during the marriage is separate property unless it loses its separate character through some act of the parties. Title, for instance, may be changed from individual to joint. Or separate funds may be commingled to the extent that they lose their separate character. Or there may be investment of marital assets in the separate property so that the marital estate has a substantial stake in it.
In 2000, the concept of the “family use doctrine” made its appearance in Mississippi in the case of Brame v. Brame, 98-CA-00502-COA, ¶20 (Miss. App. 2000), in which the husband’s clock, piano and dining set, all of which had been gifted to him took on a “new personna [sic] of full family use,” and was converted from separate into marital property.
In Rhodes v. Rhodes, decided by the court of appeals on January 11, 2011, the court found that a Florida vacation home purchased by the husband three years before the marriage was converted into marital property under the family use doctrine based on the facts that: the wife engaged in “extensive efforts” in the property’s upkeep and maintenance; the wife “undertook efforts” to improve the property; the wife decorated the home on her own; the husband made payments on the home from his earnings through the marriage; the wife made contributions through deposits into a joint checking account; the wife contributed housekeeping efforts to the home; the wife and “her family” regularly vacationed and spent holidays there; the wife lived there for a considerable time and considered it her second home; and she and her daughter used it as a residence for “several months” after Hurricane Katrina. Rhodes at ¶ 36. The court held that as a result of the combination of factors, “the vacation home lost its character” as separate property of the husband. Thus, as of January 2011, the family use doctrine is alive and well.
On the facts of this case, with the many factors apparently supported by the evidence, it’s hard to quibble with the outcome. Most practitioners and trial judges grasp without any difficulty the equitable principles involved in finding a conversion from separate to marital when there has been financial investment of marital money and/or “sweat equity” in the property.
What gives most of us at the trial level pause, though, is the concept that an item may be converted from separate to marital property simply because it is used in the marriage by the family.
If I were a lawyer whose client just inherited a mortgage-free beach home in Gulf Shores and was concerned about the future of his marriage, would I not be wise to advise him under our current law: to prohibit any use of the property by his wife and children; and to pay all taxes and expenses of the property from entirely separate funds and not from any current income. Or what if the wife inherits an antique Baldwin grand piano from her aunt, would she not be best advised to store it where neither the husband nor the children could touch it and possibly convert it into marital property, even though the daughter has considerable musical skills and would benefit from its use?
Assuming I am correct about the above advice, how in the world does such a policy promote what is best for the family as a whole? Policy and its consequences often have a strong influence on people’s actions. Is this one of those unintended consequences we’ve talked about here before?
A CHECKLIST OF CHECKLISTS
December 15, 2010 § Leave a comment
Proving your case by proving certain factors is a fact of legal life in Mississippi. I’ve referred to it as trial by checklist.
Here are the checklists I’ve posted (you can click on the links to get to them):
Modification of child support.
Periodic and rehabilitative alimony.
Income tax dependency exemption.
Those are all of the checklists of which I am aware. If you know of others, please let me know and I will add them to the list.
I also posted a checklist for closing an estate, but it’s a procedural cheklist rather than a substantive checklist.
SWEEPING DUSTBUNNIES
November 18, 2010 § 2 Comments
Have you ever noticed that mistakes and missteps seem to pile up in some cases despite your best efforts, just like those dustbunnies that pile up under that buffet in your dining room no matter how hard you try?
The case of Estate of Bellino v. Bellino, decided by the Court of Appeals on November 2, 2010, is one of those “dustbunny” cases, and it merits your attention. For ease of following this, we’ll mark the dustbunnies as they accrue with the international dustbunny symbol: ¤.
Stephen and Margaret Bellino were married in 1974. During the marriage, Stephen inherited $200,000 and opened a securities account with A. G. Edwards (AGE). In 1995, he and Margaret executed a joint account agreement declaring the account to be a joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
Alas, the marriage foundered, and the erstwhile blissful couple faced off in court. Their marriage ended May 2, 2006, with entry of a final judgment of divorce.
And that is when the discombobulating deluge of dustbunnies (¤) began to develop.
It seems that the divorce judgment made no mention of the AGE account. That would be the first ¤.
Stephen became aware of the problem when he tried to make a withdrawal and was refused by AGE, which took the position that it could not allow any withdrawals until the court addressed the ownership issue. Another ¤.
Stephen filed an MRCP Rule 59 motion to alter or amend the judgment to address the oversight. Only problem is that he waited until May 15, 2006. That would be a major ¤ because it was filed more than ten days after entry of the judgment, and so the motion was time-barred.
In all the hubbub surrounding the issue, Stephen never got around to changing ownership of the account. This is one of those ¤’s that spawns lots of other ¤’s.
Before the issue could be resolved by the judge, Stephen died on June 18, 2006. Regrettable as it is, this development was also a ¤.
Stephen’s estate was duly opened in July. There is no mention of the estate being substituted as a party in the divorce action under MRCP 25. Probably a ¤.
In November, the attorney for the estate approached the chancellor and, without any notice to Margaret or her attorneys, obtained an order directing AGE to pay the funds to the estate. No question this was a ¤.
To compound matters, the attorney for the estate never filed the order (or, it appears, any motion therefor) in either the estate or divorce file, and never served it on Margaret’s attorneys. That would be ¤ ¤ ¤.
They’re beginning to pile up, aren’t they?
The chancellor set aside the order (he was likely not happy with the way it had been handled) and eventually ruled that the account was Margaret’s. A ¤.
At this point the attorney for the estate realized that the dustbunnies were getting out of hand, so he started trying to sweep them up. The problem is that when you sweep dustbunnies it tends to scatter them and they seem to proliferate, which is exactly what they did.
The attorney for the estate filed an appeal. Now, this is really a dustbunny because the issues are fairly straightforward and not really in doubt. Score another ¤.
Right off the bat the court of appeals criticized the attorney for the estate for not filing a statement of issues after being asked not once but several time by the appellate court to do so. That would be another ¤ ¤ ¤. The court even thought about not considering his brief, which is, of course a ¤.
The court of appeals ruled that Margaret got the money because Stephen never changed the account and it was hers by survivorship. A predictable ¤.
Stephen’s estate will be stuck with the cost of cleaning up all these dustbunnies, and will have nothing to show for it. That’s a ¤ right there. In the alternative, the estate could insist that its attorney bear the cost of the appeal, which would be his own personal ¤.
So there you have it. Too many dustbunnies and before you know it you have a mess too big to clean up.
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