In re Marriage of Shannon
| Decision Date | 30 December 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 26876.,26876. |
| Citation | 179 S.W.3d 920 |
| Parties | In re the Marriage of Douglas Van SHANNON and Tonya Norma Shannon. Douglas Van Shannon, Petitioner-Respondent, v. Tonya Norma Shannon, Respondent-Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Susan S. Jensen, Springfield, for appellant.
Roy E. Williams, Jr., West Plains, for respondent.
This appeal arises from the judgment entered on January 28, 2005, arising from the dissolution of Appellant ("Wife") and Respondent ("Husband"), who were married on February 18, 1983. On January 23, 2003, just shy of their 20th anniversary, Husband and Wife separated; the dissolution was entered on January 28, 2005. Two children were born to the marriage, Nathaniel Douglas Shannon, 21 at the time of the judgment, and Joshua Aaron Shannon, 19 at the time of the judgment.1 Nathaniel Shannon was attending Ozark Technical College and Joshua Shannon was attending mechanic's school in Nashville, Tennessee; both would be emancipated by July 2005.
By the end of their marriage, Husband was engaged in a profitable trucking business; Husband's tax return for 2003 showed that the trucking business income was $202,821. The financial success allowed Husband and Wife to join with Husband's two brothers and their spouses to purchase a livestock sale barn and build a home on 80 acres in Wright County, which they paid off within eleven years and was valued at $341,000. In addition to their marital home, Husband and Wife acquired another 76 acres in Wright County known as the "Reberry Place," which had a value of $114,000. Husband and Wife rarely carried credit card debt and, if an item was charged on the credit card, it was usually paid off within two months. Husband was able to purchase a new car every two years and, at the time of the proceeding, owned over ten vehicles.
While Husband's business enjoyed financial success, Wife remained in the family home and cared for Husband in every imaginable way. She ran the Husband's bath water every night, washed his hair on many occasions, washed his back, clipped his toenails, and even filed his calluses. Further, Husband was "very particular" about the home, often criticizing Wife's cleaning. Over the twenty years she was married to Husband, Wife was continually discouraged by Husband from working outside the home.
Husband was adamant that he wanted Wife at home and not employed outside the home. Wife was a certified EMT at the time of their marriage, but her license expired because she did not utilize it throughout the marriage. Husband did not feel it was appropriate for Wife to be out in the middle of the night. Until 1989, Wife's social security statements show Wife earned no more than $18 per year. In fact, she was offered a permanent position working in a business office in and around the year 1989, but she declined the offer because Husband would not allow it and argued that he did not want to hire a babysitter. Because she could not accept the permanent position, Wife decided to work for the office in an on-call capacity when someone was needed to sit in the office and answer phones. In the next three years, Wife was only able to earn, in total, $967. Eventually, Wife even gave up that work because each time she worked, Husband became agitated and they argued.
Although Husband did not want Wife to be employed outside the home, he did, beginning in 1990, allow Wife to keep the books for his trucking business. Initially, Wife was not paid in this capacity, but then it was suggested to Husband that he put Wife on his payroll for tax purposes. In that way, it would appear that Husband's company was paying an employee when the money paid to Wife was actually returned to the company after taxes were taken out. This practice did not continue because Husband's mother complained that the practice built up Wife's social security instead of Husband's. Even though she was no longer reported on the payroll and her work as her Husband's bookkeeper was not recognized, Wife continued keeping the books for Husband's business even past the time she and Husband separated. When the sale barn was purchased, Wife ran an attached snack bar at the request of Husband and his brothers. Eventually, she took control of the snack bar and it was owned separately from the sale barn.
Husband testified that one to two years before the separation, he became involved in an affair with a married woman working at the sale barn. Both parties testified that the three years preceding the separation were filled with arguments. Wife testified that in those years Husband had become verbally abusive to her and their sons. Even with the increased agitation and withdrawal on the part of her Husband, Wife was determined to save the marriage. Wife testified that she was afraid Husband did not feel loved, so she tried to accompany Husband more on errands and bestow him with more affection, but this did not work because, as Wife later discovered, of Husband's affair. Wife's increased attention disrupted time he could spend with his girlfriend.
While no accurate account exists, Husband admitted to spending about $3,000 on his girlfriend. Testimony indicated that he bought his girlfriend jewelry, a motor for her car, phone cards, clothes, and periodically gave her money to cover bad checks or help with financial difficulty. In addition, the girlfriend accompanied Husband with his truck deliveries and they would often stay in hotels in the various states where he traveled. Even with Husband's verbal abuse, detachment, and the separation, Wife was determined to make the marriage work. Wife unequivocally learned after the separation that Husband had been having an affair for at least a year yet she was still willing to try and resolve the issues in their relationship. In contrast, Husband continued with his girlfriend and gave up on the marriage.
Wife was in her early 40s at the time of separation, she had not had any type of real employment outside of the home in close to twenty years. Running the snack bar was the closest experience she had to a real job and the snack bar was sold a few months after she and Husband separated. Although she lacked experience, Wife immediately began working and still is working part-time for an insurance agent in Springfield, Missouri. Wife also began working in another office for a different insurance agent because she needed more hours. Wife's duties include answering the phone, taking messages, quoting insurance, selling casualty and property insurance, endorsing policies, and revising insurance forms. Wife has taken an insurance exam so she can now be considered licensed support staff, but she earns $8.50 an hour and she is only able to work 32 hours a week. With her limited skills, Wife cannot currently find a job where she would earn more than $8.50 an hour. She plans to move to Springfield at which point she hopes to work full time since she will not have to commute such a long distance.
While the insurance exam she took allows her to sell casualty and property insurance, Wife is not considered an insurance agent. In order to be an insurance agent, Wife would need to obtain at least an associate college degree or the equivalent in experience and she would need to take another exam in order to obtain both life and health licenses. Even if Wife succeeded in obtaining an associate college degree and life and health licenses, which would take at the very least two years and most likely more, Wife would still need to be approved by an insurance company in order to become an agent. Wife has never attended college, and, given that she has to work, she testified that she would not be able to attend college on a full-time basis.
When questioned on the possibility of attending college, Wife answered, "It scares me, I'm a little old." Wife testified she was dependent on Husband and so hopeful that she could reunite with Husband that she had not taken any classes since the separation because she felt, if and when she and Husband resolved their issues, Husband would not approve of her attending college. Additionally, Wife did not pursue her education during the separation because "she was in a state of limbo" not knowing what the outcome of the separation would be. Wife was frustrated in her situation because she had been out of the work force for so long and stated, "I haven't been in the work force in twenty years, I am literally a 45 year-old woman who doesn't know what she wants to do when she grows up because she's never been allowed to do that."
At trial, Philip Eldred, a vocational rehabilitation counselor hired by Husband, testified to his evaluation of Wife. He administered tests, which showed that Wife was at a high-school level in reading recognition and her spelling and arithmetic were only at the eighth-grade level. By looking to the Oasis Profile, Eldred testified that the salary range for Wife as an insurance agent in the Springfield, Missouri, area was $20,380 to $54,660 per year; however, Wife would only be able to earn on the high end of that range after obtaining an associate college degree or the equivalent in work experience. Eldred testified that Wife had the potential to be an insurance agent, but she still had licenses she would have to obtain before she would be considered an agent. Eldred agreed that in order to be more successful, additional education would be needed for Wife. While Eldred testified that Wife had the potential of earning $54,660 per year as an insurance agent, Wife countered that one of her current employers does not even make that amount, and he not only has a bachelor's degree but he has also been in the insurance business much longer than Wife.
Husband's business records indicate that 2002 was the lowest of five years with a gross income of $77,845; Husband's taxable income per his 2002 personal tax return was $43,574. In 2003, Husband's business, per...
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