Adkins v. Adkins

• Decision Date: 23 November 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-577,92-577
• Citation: 650 So.2d 61
• Parties: 19 Fla. L. Weekly D2483 Pamela S. ADKINS, Appellant, v. Milton R. ADKINS, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 61

650 So.2d 61

19 Fla. L. Weekly D2483

Pamela S. ADKINS, Appellant, v. Milton R. ADKINS, Appellee.

No. 92-577.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Third District.

Nov. 23, 1994.

Opinion Denying Rehearing

Feb. 15, 1995.

Deborah Marks, North Miami, for appellant.

Wicker Smith Tutan O'Hara McCoy Graham & Lane and Paul H. Field, Miami, for appellee.

Before HUBBART, COPE and GODERICH, JJ.

HUBBART, Judge.

This is an appeal by the wife, Pamela S. Adkins, and a cross-appeal by the husband, Milton R. Adkins, from an amended final judgment of marriage dissolution entered after a non-jury trial. For the reasons which follow, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

The wife on the main appeal raises a multitude of points which center around two general arguments containing a large number of related subpoints. First, it is urged that the trial court erred in excluding certain assets from the marital estate, in valuing certain assets in the marital estate, and in the general equitable distribution of marital assets. Second, it is urged that the trial court erred in failing to award the wife alimony and attorney's fees. In advancing these arguments, the wife spends a major portion of her brief faulting the testimony of the husband's accountant--which the trial court admittedly accepted below rather than the contrary testimony of the wife and the wife's accountant. Except in one respect related to the marital home, however, we conclude that the wife asks us to reweigh and reevaluate the evidence in the record and to substitute our judgment for that of the trial court. We are, of course, forbidden by law from retrying the case on appeal because it is for the trial court who heard the testimony below, not this court, to evaluate and weigh the credibility of witness testimony and other evidence adduced at trial. So long as there is sufficient evidence in the record to support the trial court's findings, we are required to affirm the final judgment appealed from--even though there may be contrary evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom to support different findings which are more to the appellant's liking. Beyond that, in a marriage

dissolution proceeding in particular, the trial court possesses broad, but not unlimited, discretionary power to do equity between the parties and has various remedies to accomplish this purpose. So long as reasonable people may differ as to the propriety of the trial court's discretionary rulings, the appellate court may not disturb such rulings. Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So.2d 1197, 1202-03 (Fla.1980); Shaw v. Shaw, 334 So.2d 13, 16 (Fla.1976); Zalis v. Zalis, 498 So.2d 505 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986).

I

In the instant case, the parties married in 1978; it was the second marriage for both parties. There were no children born of the marriage and the husband filed for dissolution of the marriage in 1987. The trial court made the following relevant findings in the amended final judgment under review:

"The Wife is 47 years of age. She is in good health, possesses various and valuable employment skills as reflected by her personal resume, and is currently unemployed. The Husband is 63 years of age. His health is problematic although, by his admission, not disabling. He currently is attempting to reestablish a law practice in Coral Gables, Florida, with a focus on the general practice of law.

At the time of marriage, the Husband was a partner in a law firm known as Proby & Adkins, P.A., located at 299 Alhambra Circle, Coral Gables, Florida. This law practice was by all accounts a flourishing one which allowed the Husband to earn a salary in excess of One Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars ($125,000.00) per year.

Each party entered this marriage with substantial assets. The Husband has estimated his net worth to approximate Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.00), and the Wife has estimated hers to approximate Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00). Among the assets owned by the Husband was his home located at 3502 Alhambra Circle, Coral Gables, Florida, its furnishings, various investment properties, and a pension plan.

During the course of marriage, the parties, by agreement, maintained separate bank accounts, separate accounting records, and separate business interests. The Wife inherited from family members, substantial assets consisting primarily of real estate and tillable farmland and having a net worth of approximately Two Million Dollars. During this marriage, the Wife managed her inherited property, churned her stock holdings profitably, and reinvested the profits of her labor in other property interests including income-producing property in North Carolina and a Shoney's Restaurant in South Carolina. At no time did the Wife share with her husband the fruits of her labor or the profits resulting therefrom. In fact, the Wife requested that the Husband reimburse her for any and all expenses she incurred from which the Husband and/or one of his assets may have derived a benefit.

The Husband worked diligently during this marriage to provide the Wife with a comfortable lifestyle. She was provided with a maid five days a week, a beautiful home, and an environment which included trips to Europe and elsewhere. In return for his labor, the Husband asked the Wife to abide by her premarital promise to provide a 'nest', using the Wife's words, to be his companion and friend, and to be there when he returned from work. Instead, the Wife, for reasons unexplained, chose to lead a singular and self-gratifying lifestyle. For example, she would disappear from the home without notice or explanation for days, weeks, or even for months at a time. She hesitated to be a homemaker in any of the traditional senses. Although these responsibilities are not required by today's environment, they were the responsibilities that were promised by the Wife to the Husband and they were the reasons that he was induced to marry her in the first instance. He had hoped to marry at last and forever and expressed to his wife his need for a warm, comfortable, and stable homeplace. The Wife argues that she redecorated the home and was responsible for the addition of a porch during the course of the marriage. The Husband does not deny that the Wife practiced her ....

hobby of decorating, but does deny that such enhanced the value of his premarital asset or in any way provided a substantial contribution during the course of this marriage. The Court finds that the labors of the Wife were insubstantial and not the cause of any enhancement in value of the Husband's home. As such, the Husband's home and contents were and shall remain an asset owned solely by him free of any claim or encumbrance in favor of the Wife.

The Husband agrees that he worked to create assets which can be defined as marital having a present fair market value of Three Hundred Twenty-Six Thousand Dollars ($326,000.00). These are offset, however, by marital assets created by the efforts of the Wife which have a present fair market value of Two Hundred Twenty Thousand Dollars ($220,000.00).

....

The Court believes that it would be equitable to distribute the net marital assets of the parties, totalling One Hundred Six Thousand Dollars ($106,000.00) (calculated by subtracting the marital assets in the Wife's name of Two Hundred Twenty Thousand Dollars ($220,000.00) from the marital assets in the Husband's name of Three Hundred Twenty-Six Thousand Dollars ($326,000.00) equally with the Wife receiving Fifty-Three Thousand Dollars ($53,000.00) from the Husband. ^* The Court notes that these parties chose by their conduct to maintain separate assets, to contribute separately to their maintenance or improvement, and from the Wife's standpoint, to require the Husband to account to her and to reimburse her for any expenses which may have jointly benefitted the parties. This is a short-term marriage; there were no children born of the parties; and each party will leave the marriage with a net worth in excess of One Million Dollars. In fact, the Wife's net worth exceeds Two Million Dollars at present while the Husband's net worth is approximately One Million Three Hundred Thousand Dollars ($1,300,000.00).

II

It would unduly burden this opinion to consider in detail all the points and subpoints asserted by the wife in her brief. Suffice it to say, however, that we carefully examined all of these arguments, together with the supporting record, and, except in one respect, conclude that the trial court's findings, rulings, and equitable distribution are supported by substantial, competent evidence and that no abuse of the trial court's discretion has been shown. We will only consider in detail what we deem the central arguments made by the wife on this appeal.

A

One of the wife's major arguments is that the trial court erred in its valuation of the husband's pension fund as a marital asset. Part of this pension fund was admittedly a non-marital asset because it was set up by the husband prior to the parties' marriage. The wife faults the trial court's valuation of the marital portion of the pension fund acquired during the marriage. She urges that the Sebastian Beach property in the pension fund was inappropriately valued at $150,000 by the husband's accountant in her testimony at trial, because the parties allegedly stipulated that this property was worth $250,000. The wife, however, gives no record citation for this stipulation, and our independent review of the record has discovered no such stipulation.

The wife also generally faults the testimony of the tracing methods used by the husband's accountant to value the marital portion of the pension fund, but fails to demonstrate why it is faulty as a matter of law so that the trial court was not privileged to accept it. The husband's accountant testified that the value of the marital portion of the pension plan was $208,000, which valuation the trial court was perfectly free to accept. This...