Nuse v. Nuse, 90-441
| Decision Date | 07 November 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-441,90-441 |
| Citation | 601 A.2d 985,158 Vt. 637 |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
| Parties | Eric C. NUSE v. Jane F. NUSE. |
Before ALLEN, C.J., and GIBSON, DOOLEY, MORSE and JOHNSON, JJ.
The main issue in this appeal of a divorce order distributing marital property is the treatment of a house in which appellant Eric Nuse resided with his fiancee at the time of the divorce hearing. In 1989, appellant's sister sold the house to his fiancee for $67,000, approximately $19,000 less than its value. Appellant's mother provided the fiancee a gift of $21,000 to make the downpayment. The fiancee took out a mortgage, and appellant has provided 50% of the payments each month. Appellant's mother advanced $40,000 to the fiancee to make improvements to the house, taking back an unsecured note which the court found was not expected to be paid "until the distant future if at all." Appellant and his fiancee plan to marry immediately after the divorce is final. Based on the above findings, the court concluded that appellant "has an equitable interest of at least 50%" of the $80,000 equity in the house and considered that interest in dividing the marital property. On appeal, appellant argues that this conclusion is erroneous and the court could not consider the house because it was owned solely by the fiancee.
If the court erred in labeling appellant's interest in the house as an "equitable interest," the error was harmless. The court found that the placement of the title in the fiancee was part of an overall attempt to be "less than candid with the court regarding income and assets," including a failure to disclose a $200-per-month gift to appellant from his mother and a change in the method of expense accounting in his business to make the profit look smaller. The situation is similar to that in Bassler v. Bassler, 156 Vt. 353, 363, 593 A.2d 82, 88 (1991), where the husband commingled his assets with those of his mother to hinder efforts of his spouse to obtain a fair property distribution and we upheld the trial court's attempt at piercing the veil around the assets as the best it could do under the circumstances. It is the trial court's function to evaluate the evidence, and we cannot say its findings, as well as its characterization of appellant's approach to the court, is clearly erroneous. Distribution of property is not an exact science, and we have often upheld property awards despite errors that do not affect...
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