Carlton v. Carlton

• Decision Date: 01 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-41.,99-41.
• Citation: 997 P.2d 1028
• Parties: Thomas Lee CARLTON, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. Debra Lynn CARLTON, Appellee (Defendant).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

997 P.2d 1028

Thomas Lee CARLTON, Appellant (Plaintiff), v. Debra Lynn CARLTON, Appellee (Defendant).

No. 99-41.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

March 1, 2000.

Representing Appellant: Jeffrey C. Gosman, Casper, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee: Colin M. Simpson of Simpson, Kepler & Edwards, LC, Cody, Wyoming.

Before LEHMAN, C.J., and THOMAS, MACY, GOLDEN, and HILL, JJ.

GOLDEN, Justice.

Appellant Thomas Lee Carlton appeals from a decree of divorce raising issues of child support, alimony, and division of the marital property.

We affirm.

ISSUES

Appellant raises these issues on appeal:

1. Was the Court's division of the marital estate punitive in nature?

2. Is there a reasonable basis for the award of child support and alimony?

3. Did the court err as a matter of law in its finding that Appellant was voluntarily unemployed or voluntarily under employed?

4. Did the court commit plain error in the volume of character evidence admitted in this trial?

Appellee Debra Lynn Carlton restates the issues as:

1. Was the trial court's division of the marital estate an abuse of discretion?

2. Was the award of child support and alimony an abuse of discretion?

3. Did the trial court err as a matter of law in finding Appellant was voluntarily unemployed or underemployed?

4. Did the trial court commit plain error in the admission of evidence?

FACTS

The Carltons were married on December 30, 1978, and had one son together who was thirteen years old at the time of trial. Mr. Carlton adopted Mrs. Carlton's son from a previous relationship; however, he had reached the age of majority at the time of trial. During the marriage, Mr. Carlton worked as a directional driller in the oil industry, a position which routinely caused him to work all over the world. Mrs. Carlton was a homemaker. In March of 1995, the couple purchased Blackwater Lodge, a scenic dude ranch near Yellowstone National Park outside of Cody, Wyoming. Blackwater Lodge is on a federal Forest Service lease. The couple formed a corporation called Blackwater Lodge, Inc., and the assets of the lodge were transferred to the corporation. Both of the parties operated Blackwater Lodge and employed the older son.

Since the parties' purchase of the dude ranch, the corporation has had financial difficulties, and Mr. Carlton continued to work as a directional driller. In January of 1997, he returned from working in Venezuela to learn Mrs. Carlton intended to divorce him. He filed for divorce that month; she answered and filed a counterclaim, and the matter proceeded to trial on March 31, 1998. Trial continued through six days in April and two days in July of 1998 for a total of nine days. The trial court issued a twenty-three page decision letter on November 2, 1998, generally finding in favor of Mrs. Carlton on her counterclaim. She was found to be the aggrieved party and granted a divorce, given primary custody of their minor son, and awarded Blackwater Lodge on the condition she hold Mr. Carlton harmless for debt associated with it. Other personal property and debt were divided between the parties. Mr. Carlton was granted restricted visitation with his son subject to approval by two counselors; found to be voluntarily unemployed; required to pay child support retroactive to January of 1997; and required to pay alimony.

DISCUSSION

Although Mr. Carlton identifies four issues for appeal, his argument is organized around two basic contentions: that the overall impact of the decree is punitive in nature, violating the abuse of discretion standard, and that the court's finding that he is voluntarily unemployed is erroneous as a matter of law and does not support his child support and alimony obligation. He does not contest custody or visitation.

Standard of Review

Division of marital property is governed by Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-114 (LEXIS 1999), which provides in pertinent part:

In granting a divorce, the court shall make such disposition of the property of the parties as appears just and equitable, having regard for the respective merits of the parties and the condition in which they will be left by the divorce, the party through whom the property was acquired and the burdens imposed upon the property for the benefit of either party and children.

We have said:

We apply an abuse of discretion standard when reviewing divisions of marital property and, recognizing that property settlements present complex problems requiring the trial court to assess the respective merits and needs of the parties, we will not disturb the result absent a manifest abuse of that discretion. France v. France, 902 P.2d 701, 703 (Wyo.1995); Neuman v. Neuman, 842 P.2d 575, 578 (Wyo.1992); Kennedy v. Kennedy, 456 P.2d 243, 247 (Wyo.1969). We will find an abuse of discretion when the disposition shocks the conscience of the court and appears so unfair and inequitable that reasonable persons could not abide it. France, 902 P.2d at 703. "In applying these standards, we review the evidence on appeal in the favor of the successful party below, ignoring the evidence of the unsuccessful party, and granting the successful party every reasonable inference that can be drawn from the record." Id. at 703-04.

Mann v. Mann, 979 P.2d 497, 500 (Wyo. 1999).

Decisions concerning child support and alimony are committed to the sound discretion of the district court. Reavis v. Reavis, 955 P.2d 428, 431 (Wyo.1998); Scherer v. Scherer, 931 P.2d 251, 253-54 (Wyo. 1997); Triggs v. Triggs, 920 P.2d 653, 656-57 (Wyo.1996); Basolo v. Basolo, 907 P.2d 348, 352-53 (Wyo.1995).

We recently clarified the definition of abuse of discretion when we said the core of our inquiry must reach "the question of reasonableness of the choice made by the trial court." Vaughn v. State, 962 P.2d 149, 151 (Wyo.1998). "Judicial discretion is a composite of many things, among which are conclusions drawn from objective criteria; it means a sound judgment exercised with regard to what is right under the circumstances and without doing so arbitrarily or capriciously." Id. (quoting Byerly v. Madsen, 41 Wash.App. 495, 704 P.2d 1236, 1238 (1985)); Basolo, 907 P.2d at 353. We must ask ourselves whether the district court could reasonably conclude as it did and whether any facet of its ruling was arbitrary or capricious.

Thomas v. Thomas, 983 P.2d 717, 719 (Wyo. 1999).

Property Division

1. Just and Equitable Issues.

Mr. Carlton claims that the decision letter contains twenty-two errors in recounting the facts. The decision letter states and the record shows that he moved out of Blackwater Lodge in January of 1997 and moved in with his parents in Casper. He contends this finding of fact is inaccurate because it does not state that he was forced to leave Blackwater Lodge. The omission does not cause the factual finding to be erroneous. Mrs. Carlton ran the corporation from that time until the time of trial. Although Mr. Carlton disputes this, the trial court found that she ran the corporation with no help from him and with considerable interference. The record supports this finding of fact and includes evidence that Mrs. Carlton oversaw day-to-day operations, that Mr. Carlton paid bills without his wife's knowledge, overdrawing the bank account, and sent out brochures with incomplete and incorrect information, necessitating additional brochures. Although Mr. Carlton describes many efforts on his part to continue to promote the ranch to the tourism industry and resolve financial difficulties, the court, as the fact finder, was entitled to disbelieve his testimony that he was assisting rather than interfering and find as it did. We review the evidence on appeal in the favor of the successful party below, ignoring the evidence of the unsuccessful party, and granting the successful party every reasonable inference that can be drawn from the record. France, 902 P.2d at 703-04. We find no error.

Mr. Carlton claims a number of errors are contained in the following findings of facts:

In the analysis of the issues pertaining to division of property and allocation of debts in this case, the Court was struck by the fact that the corporation which Tom and Debra created to hold Blackwater Lodge is a sham corporation . . . . the parties used and spent corporate money for personal purposes, used personal funds to pay corporate debts, and generally failed to treat the corporation as a separate legal entity. The corporation was never anything but Tom and Debra Carlton, and after Tom left it was nothing more than Debra Carlton. The undisputed testimony was that these parties were provided virtually all of the needs of their lives at Blackwater Lodge. This is illustrated by Tom's testimony, for example, that he wants custody of [minor son] and that he is not asking for child support from Debra because the corporation would supply him with everything he needs.

* * *

[I]t remains virtually impossible to go back through the corporate books, either before or after Tom's departure from Blackwater Lodge and separate personal and corporate income and expenditures and arrive at separate incomes for the corporation and the individuals who were involved in managing and operating it. Even if it could be done with some reasonable degree of accuracy, such an analysis would be an exercise in futility, because the corporation never served anything other than the personal needs and desires of the parties.

* * *

Since this Court has determined that the corporation is a sham anyway, these difficulties with Debra's testimony are of little moment.

The record shows that both parties testified to commingling of personal and corporate monies. Mr. Carlton's assertions on appeal—that the court cannot fairly characterize the corporation as a sham because the evidence showed that the corporation was properly organized, stock certificates were issued, the corporation was not undercapitalized, kept corporate accounts and books, documented loans to the corporation and repayments to...