Noyes v. Noyes

• Decision Date: 21 December 1992
• Citation: 617 A.2d 1036
• Parties: Sandra J. NOYES, v. Linwood E. NOYES.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 1036

617 A.2d 1036

Sandra J. NOYES, v. Linwood E. NOYES.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Submitted on Briefs Nov. 3, 1992.

Decided Dec. 21, 1992.

Martha J. Harris, Paine, Lynch & Harris, Bangor, for plaintiff.

Lisa Lunn, Vafiades, Brountas & Kominsky, Bangor, for defendant.

Before WATHEN, C.J., and ROBERTS, GLASSMAN, CLIFFORD, COLLINS and RUDMAN, JJ.

CLIFFORD, Justice.

Sandra Noyes appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court (Penobscot County, Pierson, J.) affirming a divorce judgment entered by the District Court (Lincoln, Gunther, J.). Sandra contends that the court's award of alimony and its order concerning attorney fees are inadequate. She also asserts that the court erred in its determination of the marital estate based on its failure to assign a proper value to the marital portion of the real estate and in its decision to assign no value to the pension of Linwood Noyes, the defendant. We agree with Sandra's assertions as to the marital estate and vacate the judgment.

The parties were married in 1982 and separated in 1990. No children were born of this marriage. Linwood, age 44 at the time of the divorce hearing, has worked at the Bowater (formerly Georgia Pacific and before that Great Northern) paper mill for twenty years. He earned $44,381.80 in 1990. In addition to his salary, he is provided with a medical insurance plan at no cost to him, a life insurance policy paid for by the company, ¹ and a pension plan. Linwood's rights in the pension are vested and there was testimony from Marvin Keck, manager of compensation benefits for Georgia Pacific, that if Linwood left the company and no further contributions were made by his employer, he would receive $465.95 per month at age 65, and the lump sum value of the pension at Linwood's 65th birthday would be $12,576.50. Linwood would be entitled to a reduced benefit if he began receiving benefits at age 55. Sandra, who worked as a sales clerk prior to the marriage, did not work during the marriage, staying at home to care for the three children from the parties' prior marriages who resided with them. ² At the time of the divorce hearing, Sandra was employed in the dining room of a home for the elderly, earning $5.50 per hour. Sandra has a $2000 life insurance policy and no pension. ³

During the marriage, the parties resided in Linwood's residence in Woodville. Numerous improvements were made to the property during the marriage, including the finishing of walls and ceilings, the installation of carpeting, and the purchase of a new furnace. Monthly mortgage payments of $166 were paid during the period of the marriage.

In the divorce judgment, the trial court awarded $2000 as lump sum alimony in order to give Sandra a "financial boost ... to help her establish herself independently." The court determined that both the pension and the Woodville residence were partly marital and partly the nonmarital property of Linwood. The court concluded that the marital portion of the pension was "indeterminable ... and of no present value." The court determined the value of the real estate to be $50,000, only $12,500 of which was marital. The court made an equal division of the marital interest in the real estate, awarding Sandra $6250. Linwood was ordered to pay $800 toward Sandra's counsel fees. Sandra's appeal to this court followed her unsuccessful appeal to the Superior Court. We review the District Court record directly. Marquis v. Chartier, 592 A.2d 169, 171 (Me.1991).

I.

We first address Sandra's contention that the court placed an erroneously low value on the marital portion of the Woodville residence, resulting in an inequitably small distribution of the marital estate to Sandra. "A divorce court's determination of what property is marital, and what is nonmarital is reviewed for clear error...." ...." West v. West, 550 A.2d 1132, 1133 (Me.1988). The residence had been owned by Linwood prior to the marriage. There was testimony that during the marriage, improvements were made to the house (many of them done by Linwood), the value of which was disputed. The court found the value of the financial contribution and personal construction work to be $12,500, or one-quarter of the $50,000 found to be the total value of the residence. The court's findings coincide almost exactly with the opinion of the real estate appraiser who testified. ⁴ The court ordered that the $12,500 found to be the total value of the marital estate be divided in half, with $6250 going to Sandra. In addition to the improvements, however, the evidence was undisputed that monthly mortgage payments of $166 were made during the period of the marriage, and the original (1978) mortgage amount of $16,000 had been reduced to approximately $4000 at the time of the divorce hearing. The appreciable reduction in the amount of the mortgage lien, and the resultant increase in the value of the equity attributable to the mortgage payments made during the eight years of the marriage, does not appear to have been considered by the court.

19 M.R.S.A. § 722-A(3) (1981) provides that "[a]ll property acquired ... subsequent to the marriage ... is presumed to be marital property." Although the increase in the value of real estate during the marriage not attributable to marital effort remains nonmarital property, see 19 M.R.S.A. § 722-A(2)(E) (1981), the increase in equity resulting from mortgage payments made during the marriage is marital property,...