Marriage of Huth, In re, 1-481A146

• Decision Date: 27 July 1982
• Docket Number: No. 1-481A146,1-481A146
• Parties: In re the MARRIAGE OF Sharon Mae HUTH, Petitioner-Appellant, and Richard L. Huth, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 1042

437 N.E.2d 1042

In re the MARRIAGE OF Sharon Mae HUTH, Petitioner-Appellant,

and

Richard L. Huth, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 1-481A146.

Court of Appeals of Indiana,

First District.

July 27, 1982.

Michael J. McDaniel, New Albany, for petitioner-appellant.

Herbert F. Naville, New Albany, for respondent-appellee.

NEAL, Judge.

This appeal is brought by petitioner-appellant Sharon Mae Huth (Sharon) from an order of the Floyd Circuit Court granting a motion to correct errors to a decree of dissolution filed by respondent-appellee Richard L. Huth (Richard). This cause was previously before us and we remanded it to the trial court and directed it to (1) state the relief granted, and (2) its reasons therefore pursuant to Ind.Rules of Procedure, Trial Rule 63(A) and Trial Rule 59(J)(7). The only issue is the propriety of granting the motion to correct errors.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

A summary of the relevant portions of the record is as follows: On March 26, 1980, the trial court dissolved the marriage of the parties, placed the two children with Sharon, ordered Richard to pay all reasonable medical expenses, and provided for visitation. The matters of support and property division were taken under advisement. Thereafter, upon Sharon's petition, a further evidentiary hearing was held on July 31, 1980. On August 1, 1980, the trial court completed its decree which: (1) ordered Richard to pay all reasonable medical, dental, and optical expenses of the children; (2) ordered Richard to pay $35 per week per child for support of the children, permitting Sharon to declare the children for income tax exemption; (3) divided the tangible personal property; (4) found that the home of the parties, valued at $70,000, had been transferred by Richard to his mother without Richard filed his motion to correct errors, which reads as follows:

consideration prior to the commencement of the action for the purpose of defeating a property division, and awarded Sharon a judgment for $35,000, with interest, payable by June 30, 1981, making the judgment a lien on the real estate; and (5) ordered debts of the parties, totalling $6,800, to be divided equally between them, and ordered the parties to pay their own attorney's fees.

"Comes now respondent, Richard L. Huth, and moves the Court to set aside that portion of the Decree entered herein on the 1st day of August, 1980, wherein a lien was imposed upon real estate, for the following reasons:

1. The respondent was not the holder of title to said real estate at the time said Decree was rendered; said real estate had been transferred back to his mother prior to the commencement of divorce proceedings; respondent's mother was not joined in said proceeding as a party defendant, and the Court lacked jurisdiction to decree a lien upon real estate titled in a person's name who was not a party to this proceeding.

2. The Court's finding that a lien should be imposed upon said real estate (paragraph 7 of the Court's findings) is in conflict with paragraph 6 of the Court's conclusion of law wherein said lien is imposed upon the parties' joint real estate.

3. The Court granted relief to the petitioner above and beyond the relief for which she asked.

4. The petitioner submitted to the Court a list of household furnishings and indicated therein the division of furnishings which she desired. The Court, in its Decree, then fixed a value of all these furnishings and added said value to the improvements on the real estate and the value of the ground to arrive at a figure of Seventy Thousand Dollars ($70,000.00). This allows a double recovery to the petitioner in that she has been given the portion of the list of furnishings requested by her plus one-half ( 1/2) the value of said furnishing in cash.

5. The petitioner testified that she wanted only the list of furnishings supplied by her and one-half ( 1/2) the value of the improvements to the real estate, which improvements were appraised at Fifty-five Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($55,400.00) by Donald McCartin, whose appraisal was filed with the Court at trial of the cause.

WHEREFORE, respondent prays that the lien decreed by the Court be set aside and that the Court review and correct the errors set out herein."

The Honorable David C. Crumbo, the judge who presided over the trial, left office on December 31, 1980, without having ruled on the motion to correct errors, and was succeeded by the Honorable Henry N. Leist. On February 3, 1981, Judge Leist made the following ruling, which is the only record concerning the motion to correct errors:

"Respondent's Motion to Correct Errors is granted." The appeal by Sharon is from that order.

Pursuant to our order, the trial court filed its reasons for granting the motion to correct errors as follows:

"The Court granted the Motion to Correct Errors, filed by the respondent, for these reasons:

1. It was not clear to this Court why a lien was imposed on real estate now titled in the name of a person not a party to the suit. The subject real estate was conveyed to the son by the mother, and stood of record in the son's name alone. He built a house on it while he was married, then conveyed it back to his mother before the Petition to Dissolve Marriage was filed. This Court simply did not have enough information to feel satisfied that a lien should be imposed on the mother's real estate, when she was not a party to the suit.

2. There is in fact a conflict between the finding of fact by the Court in Paragraph 7 of the Decree and the conclusion of law set out in Paragraph 6. The finding 3. This Court felt that, from a review of the figures involved, there was merit in the respondent's contention that the trial court gave the petitioner more than she asked, as alleged in Paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 of the Motion to Correct Errors."

of fact imposes a lien on the real estate transferred to the mother; whereas the conclusion of law imposes the same lien on property jointly held. Apparently the real estate reconveyed to petitioner's mother was never in joint name.

The document did not state what corrective relief was granted.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

We experienced great difficulty in determining what relief Richard requested in his motion to correct errors, and what relief the successor judge granted, if any. Analysis of those matters is necessary. The judge who presided over the trial found that the real estate of the parties, valued at $70,000, had been fraudulently conveyed by Richard to his mother to defeat Sharon's claim for alimony. He included the value of the home in the marital assets, awarded Sharon a money judgment for one-half its value, $35,000, and made the judgment a lien on the real estate. The distribution of property was essentially equal.

Richard's motion to correct errors states that he "... moves the Court to set aside that portion of the decree ... wherein a lien was imposed upon the real estate for the following reasons." As seen above, reasons 3, 4, and 5, consist of an argument that the division of property was inequitable. Nevertheless, the motion to correct errors concludes with the prayer "... that the lien decreed by the Court be set aside and the Court review and correct the errors set out above." To confuse the matter further, the only argument Richard makes in his brief is addressed to the "inequitable" distribution of property. No argument for the vacation of the lien is made at all. T.R. 59(D)(2) requires the claimed errors to be stated in specific rather than general terms and to be accompanied by a statement of facts and grounds upon which the errors are based. Our reading of Richard's motion to correct errors reveals to us that the sole error claimed, with sufficient specificity to satisfy T.R. 59(B) was the challenged imposition of the lien, and the only comprehensible relief requested was to set aside the lien. The reasons 1 through 5 appear to be only arguments in support of the claimed error of the lien. We so hold.

The successor judge's ruling on the motion to correct errors, "Respondents motion to correct errors is granted," is equally vague. T.R. 59(J)(3) permits the trial court to alter, amend, modify or correct the judgment. T.R. 59(J)(7) requires that if corrective relief is granted, the court shall specify its general reasons therefor, but when a new trial is granted, the rule provides that:

"When a new trial is granted because the verdict, findings or judgment do not accord with the evidence, the court shall make special findings of fact upon each material issue or element of the claim or defense upon which a new trial is granted. Such finding shall indicate whether the decision is against the weight of the evidence or whether it is clearly erroneous as contrary to or not supported by the evidence; if the decision is found to be against the weight of the evidence, the findings shall relate the supporting and opposing evidence to each issue upon which a new trial is granted; if the decision is found to be clearly erroneous as contrary to or not supported by the evidence, the findings shall show why judgment was not entered upon the evidence."

Thus, the successor judge's ruling, being inadequate to permit appellate review, was remanded to him with directions to state what corrective relief was granted and his reasons therefor. His certification does not contain any statement as to what corrective relief was granted. He did not grant a new trial, nor did he alter, amend or modify the judgment.

Since the only error claimed by Richard was the imposition of the lien to secure Sharon's money judgment on the real estate that the court found was fraudulently conveyed to his mother, the court's action "That immediately prior to the filing of this cause of action, respondent transferred the real property described in the joint exhibit of the parties, the appraisal of Donald E. McCartin, to respondent's mother. From the evidence such property is marital...