Mairs v. Mairs

• Decision Date: 16 April 2009
• Docket Number: 505666.
• Citation: 61 A.D.3d 1204,2009 NY Slip Op 02881,878 N.Y.S.2d 222
• Parties: MICHAEL A. MAIRS, Respondent, v. CAMILLE MAIRS, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

61 A.D.3d 1204

878 N.Y.S.2d 222

2009 NY Slip Op 02881

MICHAEL A. MAIRS, Respondent, v. CAMILLE MAIRS, Appellant.

505666.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department.

Decided April 16, 2009.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Hall, J.), entered January 3, 2008 in Saratoga County, ordering, among other things, equitable distribution of the parties' marital property, upon a decision of the court.

KAVANAGH, J.

The parties were married in 1981 and have seven children. Plaintiff (hereinafter the husband) is an ophthalmologist with his own private practice while defendant (hereinafter the wife) is a tenured math professor employed at the Community College of Philadelphia. In 2002, the husband commenced this action for divorce and, prior to trial, the parties reached a partial stipulation resolving some, but not all, of the issues that divided them. Among those that remain were the degree to which the wife should share in the husband's medical practice and medical license, the amount and duration of maintenance, the value of each party's educational degree, as well as the husband's medical license, and the amount to be paid by the parties for the support of their children. The wife also sought payment by the husband of the fees charged by her counsel and the expert witness, as well as an order extending the husband's obligation to share in the payment of the children's numerous extracurricular activities. After a three-day trial, Supreme Court issued a judgment that, among other things, granted the husband a divorce and ordered him to pay the wife 15% of the value of his medical license and medical practice.¹ It also directed the husband to pay $400 per week in maintenance to the wife for seven years, child support in the amount of $1,260 per week, $18,000 of the wife's counsel's fees, 50% of the expert witness fees, and a portion of the college expenses incurred by the parties' eldest child. Finally, it required the husband, as a guarantee against his obligations under the judgment, to maintain a $200,000 life insurance policy with the wife listed as the primary beneficiary. The wife now appeals.

The wife takes issue with almost every aspect of Supreme Court's decision and, in particular, claims that in its judgment the court failed to fully take into account the sacrifices and contributions she made during the parties' 20-year marriage that, in her view, served to provide the husband with an opportunity to obtain his medical license and develop a thriving medical practice. The husband, while acknowledging that his medical license and practice are, to a degree, marital assets, claims that each was acquired as the direct result of his individual efforts and that his wife had little to do with his having obtained them.

In deciding the extent to which a spouse should share in the value of a marital asset, among the factors to be considered are the length of time the parties were married, their respective age and health, the ability of each to earn an income now and in the future, any direct or indirect contributions made by the nontitled spouse in the effort to obtain the asset, the asset's value and the degree to which it appreciated during the marriage and any tax consequences that will occur upon the assets distribution (see Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [5] [d]; Smith v Smith, 8 AD3d 728, 729 [2004]). Initially, we note that such decisions are generally left to the exercise of the trial court's sound discretion and will not, as a general rule, be disturbed if, as rendered, they properly account for all of the relevant statutory factors. However, we have the authority to conduct a broad review of any such award (see Carman v Carman, 22 AD3d 1004, 1006 [2005]; Roffey v Roffey, 217 AD2d 864, 866 [1995]).

On the facts presented, we are of the view that the wife is entitled to more than 15% of the value of the husband's license to practice medicine and his medical practice. We reach this conclusion by noting that, in particular, during this long-term marriage, the husband not only successfully completed his undergraduate studies and attended medical school, he also earned his medical degree and completed both his internship and residency, after which he was able to establish a successful medical practice. While the husband pursued his medical career, the wife not only gave birth to the parties' seven children, but cared for them, managed the household and earned a salary that, for a time, was the principal source of the family's income. She relocated the family from Utah to Philadelphia and later to New York for the express purpose of allowing the husband to pursue his medical studies and obtain his medical license. When the husband entered private practice, the wife, in addition to her maternal obligations, continued to work—commuting on a regular basis to Philadelphia—and managed the practice, assuming the responsibility for the preparation of all invoices and the payment of all bills.² Given these circumstances, we find that the wife's contributions to her husband's medical career were both meaningful and significant and, as such, she is entitled to 25% of the value of his medical license, as well as his medical practice (see Carman v Carman, 22 AD3d at 1006; Brough v Brough, 285 AD2d 913, 914 [2001]).

While Supreme Court placed a value on the husband's educational degrees at $1,493,000, it adopted the opinion of the expert retained by the parties that the practice had a value of $12,000 and that the wife's distributive share amounted to $1,800. The expert, while acknowledging that the practice annually had gross revenues in excess of $500,000, initially placed its value at $93,000, after allowing for a full discount on the total amount alleged by the husband to be owed on a loan made to the practice by a local hospital. The expert then reduced that amount to account for the tax implications that would occur if the practice were sold. While we accept Supreme Court's determination that the tax impact generated by the sale of the practice was fairly considered in this valuation, we do not agree that the full amount of the loan—$190,830—should be included in determining the practice's fair market value. In that regard, we note that in the 12 years that this debt has been in existence, not one payment has been made against its principal and the promissory notes evidencing the existence of this legal obligation only amount to $104,000.³ As a result, we find that while it was appropriate to consider this loan as a liability to be counted against the value of the practice, the amount used to discount its value should be that represented by the face value of the promissory notes $104,000 (see Charland v Charland, 267 AD2d 698, 700-701 [1999]). Given that the expert has acknowledged reducing his estimate of the practice's value by the full amount claimed to be owed on this loan, the value of the practice for distributive purposes should be increased by $86,830 to $98,830, with the wife receiving a 25% distributive share.⁴

We find no abuse of discretion in Supreme Court's imposition of a 4.2% interest rate imposed on the amount the husband owes the wife for her share of the marital assets. "[T]he manner in which a distributive award is to be paid is discretionary" (Smith v Smith, 17 AD3d 959, 960 [2005]) and the imposition of interest on an outstanding debt as a result of equitable distribution is equally within a court's discretion (see Dewitt v Sheiness, 42 AD3d 776, 778 [2007]; Hamroff v Hamroff, 35 AD3d 365, 366 [2006]).⁵

As for maintenance, Supreme Court directed that the husband pay the wife $400 per week for seven years, or $20,800 annually. The determination of an appropriate maintenance award requires a "delicate balanc[e] of each party's needs and means" (Matter of Shreffler v Shreffler, 283 AD2d 679, 680 [2001]; see Brzuszkiewicz v Brzuszkiewicz, 28 AD3d 860, 862 [2006]) and consideration of the relevant statutory factors (see Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [6] [a]). These factors include "the parties' employment history, respective educational background and vocational skills, present and future earning capacity, age and health, each party's ability to become self-supporting, the duration of the marriage, and the present state of their finances" (Carl v Carl, 58 AD3d 1036, 1038 [2009]; see Bean v Bean, 53 AD3d 718, 721-722 [2008]), as well as their predivorce standard of living (see Hartog v Hartog, 85 NY2d 36, 50-51 [1995]). In that regard, the husband earns, on average, $300,000 per year, is in good health and enjoys a significant earning potential for the foreseeable future. In comparison, the wife suffers from chronic asthma, has an annual salary that, in the past, rarely exceeded $50,000 and is not likely to earn significantly more income in the future.⁶ Given the length of the marriage, the wife's age and the fact that a substantial portion of the distributive award for her share of the marital assets is deferred, we conclude that the husband's maintenance obligation should be increased to $500 per week for seven years.⁷

While we do not agree with the wife's claim that Supreme Court should have imputed certain income to the husband in its calculation of child support, we do note that certain errors were committed in the final calculation of that figure that require an adjustment in each party's obligation to pay child support. Specifically, in determining each party's annual gross income, the court neglected to add any income that had been deferred by the parties (see Domestic Relations Law § 240 [1-b] [b] [5] [iii]) or deduct all the payments made by them for FICA and Medicare taxes (see Domestic Relations Law § 240 [1-b] [b] [5] [vii] [C], [H]). Furthermore, there is no indication that Supreme Court, prior to making this computation, deducted the amount that the husband is paying in maintenance from the total of his gross income (see Domestic...