Rawlings v. Rawlings
| Decision Date | 06 February 2001 |
| Citation | 36 S.W.3d 795 |
| Parties | (Mo.App. W.D. 2001) . Lois Dean Rawlings, Respondent, v. Jim Ray Rawlings, Appellant WD57821 Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Handdown Date: 0 |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal From: Circuit Court of Boone County, Hon. Joseph D. Holt
Counsel for Appellant: Deniel L. Viets
Counsel for Respondent: L.G. Copeland
Opinion Summary: Jim Rawlings appeals the trial court's judgment dissolving his marriage to Lois Rawlings and dividing property and debts. He claims that the trial court abused its discretion in designating and allocating to him over $66,000 in credit card debt as his separate, nonmarital debt. He also contends that the trial court's overall division of marital property and debt was unjust and disproportionate.
REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.
Division One holds: The parties never entered into a specific written agreement prior to or during the marriage that each would be responsible for his or her own debts or, in other words, that the debts incurred during the marriage by each party would be the separate, nonmarital debt of that party who incurred the debt. The trial court's determination that the debts of the parties were separate, nonmarital debts was not supported by substantial evidence and was an abuse of discretion.
Opinion Vote: REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS. Breckenridge, P.J., and Howard, J. concur.
Jim Rawlings appeals the trial court's judgment dissolving his marriage to Lois Rawlings and dividing property and debts. He claims that the trial court abused its discretion in designating and allocating to him over $66,000 in credit card debt as his separate, nonmarital debt. Mr. Rawlings also contends that the trial court's overall division of marital property and debt was unjust and disproportionate. The judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the case is remanded with directions.
Jim and Lois Rawlings were married in 1990. No children were born to the union. Both parties were employed full-time during the marriage. Mr. Rawlings was self-employed, operating two businesses. One business provided maintenance of rental properties. The second business involved trading firearms. Mr. Rawlings's income was about $2500 per month or $30,000 per year. Mrs. Rawlings, who had been employed at GTE for 23 years, had a gross income of $38,000 at the time of dissolution. During the marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings maintained separate finances. They had separate checking accounts and credit cards but filed joint tax returns.
The parties separated in December 1998. At the time of dissolution, the parties owned both separate and martial property. Included in the property were three parcels of real estate. The three properties consisted of a residence on 5 acres located in Ashland, Missouri, owned by Mrs. Rawlings before the marriage and used by the couple as their residence. This lot in Ashland was expanded shortly after the marriage when the couple purchased a 1.8 acre contiguous tract of land and built a garage on it. The second property was a house and lot in Clark, Missouri, acquired by the parties during the marriage at an auction. Finally, the third property, located in Harrisburg, Missouri, consisted of 5 acres and was bought by Mr. Rawlings from his parents during the marriage.
Additional assets owned by the parties at the time of dissolution were Mrs. Rawlings's GTE pension and 401(k) savings and investment plans, 350 shares of GTE stock purchased through her employer, and a Prudential IRA purchased by Mrs. Rawlings before the marriage. The parties also acquired during the marriage a recreational membership at Lost Valley Lake, two $500 savings bonds, and various cars, trucks, guns, boats, ATV's, antiques, and household goods. The parties also held various loans and credit card debt at the time of dissolution including over $66,000 in debt accumulated on Mr. Rawlings's personal credit cards.
The trial court's judgment awarded Mrs. Rawlings separate property valued at $126,200. Mr. Rawlings was awarded no separate property. The court found the marital estate was worth $204,663 and awarded Mrs. Rawlings marital property valued at $108, 923 and Mr. Rawlings marital property valued at $95,740. Mr. Rawlings was awarded a share of Mrs. Rawlings's GTE pension by a Qualified Domestic Relations Order. The court allocated debt to the parties as follows: "Each party, by their agreement (emphasis added), shall pay their own debts and the specific or secured debt on any property assigned or set over to them and hold the other harmless therefrom." This appeal by Mr. Rawlings followed.
Mr. Rawlings raises two points on appeal. In his first point, he claims that the trial court abused its discretion in designating and allocating to him over $66,000 in credit card debt as his separate, nonmarital debt. He asserts that the record does not disclose an agreement by the parties that each party be responsible for his or her debt and that his credit card debt was "substantially" the result of marital expenses and, thus, marital debt that should have been divided by the trial court under section 452.330.1. Second, Mr. Rawlings contends that the trial court's overall division of marital property and debt was unjust and disproportionate in that he was awarded only 16% of the marital estate when considering that he was assessed his entire credit card debt.
The judgment of the trial court in a dissolution proceeding will be affirmed on appeal unless there is no substantial evidence to support it, it is against the weight of the evidence, it erroneously declares the law, or it erroneously applies the law. Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976); DeMayo v. DeMayo, 9 S.W.3d 736, 739 (Mo. App. W.D. 2000). The trial court has broad discretion in distributing property, and an appellate court will interfere only if the division is so unduly weighted in favor of one party as to constitute an abuse of discretion. Silcox v. Silcox, 6 S.W.3d 899, 904-905 (Mo. banc 1999); DeMayo, 9 S.W.3d at 739. "An abuse of discretion will be found only if the award is so arbitrary or unreasonable that it indicates indifference and lack of proper judicial consideration." Silcox, 6 S.W.3d at 905 (citation omitted). The party challenging the divorce decree has the burden of demonstrating error. Wright v. Wright, 1 S.W.3d 52, 57 (Mo. App. W.D. 1999).
Section 452.330 governs the disposition of property and debts in a proceeding for dissolution of marriage and mandates a two-step process to be followed by the trial court. Nelson v. Nelson, 25 S.W.3d 511, 516-517 (Mo. App. W.D. 2000); Rivers v. Rivers, 21...
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