Johnson v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 23 March 1979
• Docket Number: No. 48253.,48253.
• Citation: 277 NW 2d 208
• Parties: Bernice B. JOHNSON, Respondent, v. Bryce B. JOHNSON, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

277 N.W.2d 208 (1979)

Bernice B. JOHNSON, Respondent, v. Bryce B. JOHNSON, Appellant.

No. 48253.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 23, 1979.

Richard J. Sundberg, Bloomington, for appellant.

James P. Rorris and Michael Ormond, Minneapolis, for respondent.

Heard before KELLY, TODD, and WAHL, JJ., and considered and decided by the court en banc.

WAHL, Justice.

Bryce Johnson, respondent in this dissolution proceeding, appeals from an order of the Hennepin County District Court denying his motion for a new trial or, in the alternative, for amended findings. Appellant seeks a new trial on the issue of property division on the grounds that the trial court erred in finding the value of certain assets and abused its discretion by including appellant's interest in a certain joint venture in the disposition and by failing to consider the tax consequences of the award. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for modification of the judgment.

Bryce and Bernice Johnson were married on September 15, 1951. During their marriage, Mr. Johnson was employed primarily as a salesman of commercial and residential real estate. In addition to working for well-known realty brokers, Mr. Johnson was self-employed at various points during the marriage in the business of buying and selling rental properties and real estate development. Mrs. Johnson often assisted in the management of the rental properties. When the action for dissolution was commenced, Mr. Johnson was employed by a large corporation in real estate development. At the time of trial he was primarily self-employed.

Mrs. Johnson was employed as a secretary for the first five years of the marriage. In 1956 she began to close her husband's real estate transactions. She later obtained a license to sell real estate and sold real estate for other brokers for a period of time. At the time of trial she was employed as a clerical supervisor in Hennepin County. The parties acquired considerable real estate holdings during their marriage. Typically, Mr. Johnson would locate the property, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson would view it prior to joint purchase, and then Mrs. Johnson would handle subsequent book-keeping matters and rent collections.

On July 15, 1973, Mrs. Johnson commenced an action for dissolution of the parties' marriage in Hennepin County District Court. The matter came on for trial on December 15, 1975. At the close of testimony on October 4, 1976, the trial court requested both counsel to present proposals for resolution of the matter. Mrs. Johnson's proposals were presented by letter on January 5, 1977. Mr. Johnson did not submit a proposal prior to the trial court's decision.

On June 16, 1977, the trial court found that the parties had net equities in household furnishings in the amount of $3,500, in Minnesota real property in the amount of $457,593, in Texas real property in the amount of $9,000, in Arizona real property in the amount of $567,477, and in an Arizona joint venture capital account in the amount of $180,000.

The trial court awarded Minnesota real and personal property with a net worth of $327,907 to Mrs. Johnson, and the remainder of the Minnesota property with a net worth of $133,186 and all of the Texas and Arizona properties with a total net worth of $756,000 to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson moved for a new trial or amended findings on July 14, 1977, and at that time submitted a proposal for division of the property. The trial court denied both motions, and this appeal was taken.

1. The first issue raised by appellant concerns the trial court's finding of fact that certain real property owned by appellant and located in Texas had a fair market value of $24,000. Appellant contends that the trial court's finding was not supported by the record. We disagree. Although appellant's unsubstantiated testimony was that the property was worthless due to recent developments in the area, evidence presented by respondent established that the property, purchased by appellant for $12,500 in 1972, had been represented by appellant in a signed financial statement to have a fair market value of $25,000 in late 1974.

Based on the evidence, we conclude that the trial court's determination of a market value of $24,000 was not clearly erroneous. Exactitude is not required of the trial court in the valuation of assets in a dissolution proceeding; it is only necessary that the value arrived at lies within a reasonable range of figures. Hertz v. Hertz, 304 Minn. 144, 145, 229 N.W.2d 42, 44 (1975).

2-3. The next two issues concern appellant's interest in a joint venture in Black Canyon, Arizona. Appellant claims that the trial court erred by including his interest in the property division or, in the alternative, erred in its specific valuation of appellant's interest.

Much of the testimony at trial concerned the Black Canyon interest. In spring of 1972, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson considered purchasing as an investment approximately 202 acres in Arizona called the Black Canyon-Phoenix property, then owned by Mr. Johnson's corporate employer. In July of 1972, however, Mr. Johnson and several other individuals, not including Mrs. Johnson, purchased an option to buy the property. On February 1, 1973, a formal joint venture agreement was executed by appellant and those individuals for the purpose of acquiring, developing, and managing the investment property. Mr. Johnson acquired a 30 percent interest in the venture. The option was exercised in August of 1973, about one month after commencement of the dissolution proceeding.

Turning to appellant's initial claim of error concerning this property, we are urged, as was the trial court, to exclude the Arizona property entirely from the property division on the ground that it was acquired by appellant after the commencement of the dissolution proceeding.¹ To hold as appellant urges would require a significant departure from the plain meaning of the Minnesota statutes that governed this dissolution proceeding.²

Minn.St. 518.58 (1976), subjects all "property acquired during coverture" to disposition by the trial court. Appellant would have the Arizona property excluded from the trial court's jurisdiction on the basis that coverture in effect terminated upon the filing of the petition for dissolution. Minn.St. 518.54, subd. 5 (1976), however defines "property acquired during coverture" to mean "any property, real or personal, acquired by the parties, or either of them, to a dissolution or annulment proceeding at any time during the existence of the marriage relation between them. * *." (Emphasis supplied.) The existence of the marriage relation continues in Minnesota until a decree of dissolution is granted, at which time the marriage contract is completely dissolved. Minn.St. 518.27. Thus property acquired after the filing of the petition is coverture property included in the property division in Minnesota.³

The statutory language is clear and unambiguous. In such cases, any statutory revision should be left to the legislature. State v. West, 285 Minn. 188, 173 N.W.2d 468 (1969). As we stated in State v. West, supra, "It is not for the courts to make, amend, or change the statutory law, but only to apply it. If its language embodies a definite meaning which involves no absurdity or contradiction, the statute is its own best expositor." 285 Minn. 197, 173 N.W.2d 474.

Although we reject appellant's legal argument, we do recognize his concern as valid. Because the assets are determined and valued at time of trial, the availability of a court date can be a significant factor in the spouses' business and financial decisions involving those assets. Thus, as trial courts exercise their discretion in dividing the assets of the parties, they are encouraged to consider, as one of many equitable factors, that an asset may have been acquired by one spouse without contribution of the other after commencement of a dissolution proceeding. Cf., Cozik v. Cozik, 279 Minn. 91, 155 N.W.2d 471 (1968) (trial court's property award to wife held excessive where husband contributed substantially more to property acquisition); Silverness v. Silverness, 270 Minn. 564, 134 N.W.2d 901 (1965) (trial court found not to have abused its discretion by awarding to one spouse real property that he had acquired independently during their informal separation).⁴ Consistent with this policy, the trial court in this case expressly considered the efforts expended by appellant in acquiring the Arizona property subsequent to commencement of the dissolution proceeding and awarded appellant the entire interest in that property.

We turn next to appellant's contention that the trial court erred in its valuation of appellant's interests in the Black...