In re Marriage of Scinto
| Docket Number | 37878-1-III |
| Decision Date | 28 July 2022 |
| Parties | In the Matter of the Marriage of CINDY D. SCINTO, Respondent, and JOHN P. SCINTO,Appellant. |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
In this marital separation case, John Scinto appeals the superior court's property division and the award of spousal maintenance and attorney fees to his wife, Cindy Scinto. The appeal primarily forces this court to examine the elasticity of discretion afforded a superior court when awarding property to separating spouses. John complains that the trial court abused its discretion when it allocated 79.2 percent of the couple's assets to his wife, Cindy. This opinion awkwardly presents the majority view on affirming the superior court's spousal maintenance award and award of attorney fees to wife Cindy Scinto, but the minority view on affirming the trial court's property division. Because of the unique circumstances of this case, including Cindy's severe medical ailments, her inability for gainful employment, and her need for the family residence, I would hold that the superior court did not abuse its discretion. The majority holds otherwise.
John and Cindy Scinto married in 1982 in New York. They separated for the third time in June 2017. For reasons underscored later, the parties seek a legal separation, not a marital dissolution. Trial occurred in September 2019.
In 1989, when domiciling in Arizona, Cindy and John Scinto bore a son, later diagnosed to be on the autistic spectrum. The child, now an adult, resides on his own.
Since their marriage, John Scinto has worked for the United States Postal Service. Between 1982 and 1988, John labored as a mail carrier, first in North Carolina and then in New York. In 1988, the couple transplanted to Hereford, Arizona, where John worked as a distribution window clerk. He served in the same position at Sierra Vista, Arizona from 1989 to 1991.
From 1991 to 1996, John Scinto served as a postmaster, first in McNeal and later in Stanfield, Arizona. Beginning in 1996 John assumed the position of customer service analyst, a position in which he continues to serve at a higher level. In his first analyst position, he oversaw five hundred rural delivery routes in Arizona. He scrutinized routes to create and preserve proper sizing. This analysis demanded following contractual provisions, handbooks, and manuals and interfacing with rural communities.
John and Cindy Scinto moved, with their son, to Spokane in 1998 where John continued as a customer service analyst. All three have resided in Spokane since. In 2000, John received a promotion to retail delivery analyst, in which position he evaluated city delivery routes for eastern Washington and Idaho. His tasks included assessing the amount of time a carrier spent on a route and the amount of time that the carrier should have spent on the route.
At some unremembered time, John Scinto received another promotion this time to retail fleet leader. John analyzed mail counts and city delivery routes. With assistance from computer software, John determined the most efficient methods to deliver mail. He supervised others who walked postal routes and who reported to him numbers that he, in turn, reviewed.
In 2006, John Scinto became an operation specialist with the United States Postal Service, at which time he journeyed to Washington, D.C. on temporary assignment. John developed policies and programs regarding rural delivery. He updated Postal Service manuals. Cindy and the couple's son continued to live in Spokane, and John periodically returned home. John continues employment with the Postal Service today as a rural delivery specialist working from Spokane.
At the time of trial, John Scinto accrued a monthly salary of $9,636, paid biweekly. This salary equates to yearly income of $115,633. The Postal Service monthly deducts $59 for Medicare and $669 for civil service retirement from John's paycheck.
He claims his net monthly income is $7,200 after also deducting for income taxes. John also monthly deducts an amount from his paycheck into a voluntary retirement plan known as a thrift savings plan.
Cindy Scinto's physical condition overshadows other factors in this appeal. Cindy suffers from relentless health problems requiring constant monitoring and resulting in high medical expenses. The ailments include a heart transplant attended to coronary artery disease, a pancreas transplant caused by type 1 diabetes, Graves' disease with labile thyroid levels osteopenia, recurrent kidney stones, chronic kidney failure and disease, sleep apnea, recurrent skin carcinoma due to the effects of immunosuppressant treatment for the transplants, and actinic keratosis.
Cindy Scinto has endured diabetes since childhood. At a young age, she began injecting herself with insulin through needles. She developed carpal tunnel syndrome because the diabetes contributed to numbness and pain in her wrists and fingers. Because of the diabetes, Cindy encountered a difficult pregnancy with the couple's son, and her physician placed her in the hospital for the last two months of pregnancy. Cindy needed six months to recover from continued swelling after childbirth.
Cindy Scinto's pregnancy resulted in a hormonal imbalance, which increased her blood sugar imbalance. After the Scintos moved to Spokane, surgeons removed Cindy's uterus and ovaries. Cindy took estrogen for an unidentified time, which did not assist in balancing her hormones or blood sugar.
To end the practice of injecting herself with needles, Cindy Scinto acquired, at an unidentified time, an insulin pump. She changes the pump's catheter every three days.
Grave's disease is an autoimmune disorder that impacts the thyroid. On an unknown date, a surgeon removed Cindy Scinto's thyroid as a result of the disease.
Cindy Scinto develops trigger fingers, an immune system response to synovial tissue in her hands. The infirmity renders her fingers stiff and locked. Some surgeries have ameliorated this finger ailment, but trigger fingers return on occasion. When a finger sticks, she struggles to pry open the digit.
In 2001, son Jonathan and Cindy were jogging for his physical education instruction. Cindy suddenly developed cramps, pain in her legs, and breathlessness. Her chest felt crushed by an elephant. Cindy visited her family physician. An echocardiogram, blood work, and blood pressure showed no abnormality. The physician sent Cindy home with a diagnosis of acid reflux.
Three days later Cindy Scinto visited the emergency room at a Spokane Valley hospital. The hospital immediately conveyed Cindy to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. At the medical center emergency room, medical personnel performed a nuclear treadmill test. A cardiologist diagnosed a large blockage in Cindy's left anterior descending artery, known as a widow maker. Personnel quickly carted Cindy to the surgery theater, wherein a surgeon implanted stents.
On numerous later occasions, surgeons installed stents in arteries surrounding Cindy Scinto's heart. Cindy received eleven stents. Additional blockage soon followed the placement of each of the stents. Cindy underwent an angioplasty with the addition of each stent. Recovery from each surgery required three days in the hospital. Cindy had a pacemaker implanted in her heart.
Despite receiving the various heart surgeries, doctors determined that Cindy Scinto needed a heart transplant, and she was placed on the transplant list. One does not receive a transplant unless close to death. A cardiologist told Cindy she was near death, although seventy individuals possessed higher priority on the transplant list. On July 14, 2005, a Seattle donor died, but no heart surgeon wanted to relocate the donor's heart because the donor suffered a viral cancer called cytomegalovirus from drug use. The donor also smoked tobacco. Surgeons questioned whether the heart would benefit anyone. Being near death, Cindy asked for the donor's heart. A Leer jet flew the heart from Seattle to Spokane. The transplant lasted six hours. Cindy remained in intensive care for two weeks. Her recovery lasted one year. Her breathing improved from the transplant, however.
An organ transplant cultivates new ailments. The transplant patient must medicate with anti-rejection drugs. Because of the diseased substitute heart donated to Cindy Scinto, cancer manifested itself in four months after the transplant. Cindy underwent chemotherapy.
Cindy Scinto also developed skin cancer on her nose. Prednisone taken for the heart transplant had thinned her skin. A surgeon removed one side of Cindy's nose and removed the cancerous cells before regrafting the nose skin. Cindy thereafter underwent chemotherapy on her face for the skin cancer. Cindy developed skin cancer in other areas of her body. Skin cancer on her shinbone area demanded the removal of a chunk of flesh and forty stitches.
After heart surgery, Cindy Scinto encountered difficulty measuring her blood sugar level. Medications for the heart transplant prevented her body from absorbing insulin. Also, insulin did little to balance Cindy's blood sugar level.
One day in 2011, Cindy Scinto became delusional and went into shock. Because of complications with diabetes resulting from the heart transplant, Cindy then needed a pancreas transplant. She went to the Mayo Clinic for assistance, but the clinic refused to operate because of her earlier heart transplant. Cindy returned to Spokane. She later learned that European surgeons travel to the University of Illinois in Chicago and perform risky surgeries. Cindy went to Chicago for a pancreas transplant. European surgeons drive a hard bargain. Before the surgery, Cindy signed a release stating she faced a zero percent...
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