Stevenson v. Stevenson

• Decision Date: 12 April 1982
• Docket Number: No. 15535-PR,15535-PR
• Citation: 643 P.2d 1014,132 Ariz. 44
• Parties: Hildegarde R. STEVENSON, Petitioner/Appellant, v. Richard Eldon STEVENSON, Respondent/Appellee.
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

Page 1014

643 P.2d 1014

132 Ariz. 44

Hildegarde R. STEVENSON, Petitioner/Appellant, v. Richard Eldon STEVENSON, Respondent/Appellee.

No. 15535-PR.

Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc.

April 12, 1982.

Fish, Briney, Duffield, Miller, Young & Adamson by Richard Duffield, Tucson, for petitioner/appellant.

Ronald W. Sommer, Tucson, for respondent/appellee.

HOLOHAN, Chief Justice.

This case arises out of a dissolution of the parties' marriage and concerns the propriety of the trial court's division of certain property held in the joint names of the parties. The trial court found that the parties' residence and four checking and savings accounts were common property. The court ordered that the house be sold and the proceeds and the joint accounts be divided equally.

The wife appealed, contending that the trial court erred in awarding appellee husband an interest in the home, in the joint accounts, and in 100 shares of stock held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship. She also contested the order that she pay spousal maintenance to appellee husband, who is terminally ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called "Lou Gehrig's disease." In a memorandum decision, 2 CA-CIV 3912 (filed May 4, 1981), the court of appeals affirmed the trial court's disposition of the house and the stock and the spousal maintenance award. However, relying upon O'Hair v. O'Hair, 109 Ariz. 236, 508 P.2d 66 (1973), the court of appeals found that the joint accounts were the separate property of appellant wife. The appellate court modified the judgment to show that all the funds in the joint savings accounts were appellant's separate property.

We granted review to examine the issue related to the disposition of the joint savings account. We approve and accept the decision of the court of appeals on all the other issues, but that part of the decision of the court of appeals dealing with the joint savings accounts is vacated.

The facts necessary to the decision will be viewed in the light most favorable to supporting the trial court's judgment. Mecham v. United Bank of Arizona, 107 Ariz. 437, 489 P.2d 247 (1971). The parties were married in 1965, and shortly thereafter they moved into a house in California which was appellant wife's separate property. In 1969, she executed a deed of gift granting the house to appellee husband but reserving to herself a life estate and the right to revoke the deed. In 1974, appellant took $9,000 from her separate savings account and bought a lot in Green Valley, Arizona; the deed to the lot was taken in the names of both parties as joint tenants with right of survivorship. In 1975, appellant sold the house in California and placed the proceeds in a joint passbook account at Pima Savings and Loan Association. With funds from this account, she paid the balance due on the house which was built on the Green Valley lot, purchased home furnishings, made home improvements, and purchased 100 shares of stock in San Diego Gas & Electric Company which were issued in the names of both parties as joint tenants with right of survivorship. At the time of trial, the parties also had two additional joint tenancy accounts at Pima Savings: one contained $10,000 from a matured certificate of deposit taken in joint tenancy with right of survivorship and purchased with funds from the joint passbook account mentioned above; the other contained $3,954.84, representing accumulated interest on the certificate of deposit. The trial court ordered that the Green Valley home be sold and one-half the proceeds distributed to each party, holding that appellant wife had failed to rebut the presumption of a gift of one-half the property to appellee which arose because she took title to the real property in their joint names. Becchelli v. Becchelli, 109 Ariz. 229, 508 P.2d 59 (1973); Blaine v. Blaine, 63 Ariz. 100, 159 P.2d 786 (1945). The trial court also found that the stock and the savings accounts were jointly owned.

A.R.S. § 25-318(A) controls the trial court's division of the property of the parties upon dissolution of their marriage. The court must assign each party's separate property to that party. "It shall also divide the community, joint tenancy and other property held in common equitably, though not necessarily in kind, without regard to marital misconduct."

In 1973 this court decided two cases concerning the effect of one spouse's putting property acquired with that spouse's funds into the names of both spouses jointly. In Becchelli v. Becchelli, 109 Ariz. 229, 508 P.2d 59 (1973), we held that when real property is paid for by one spouse and taken jointly in both spouses' names, a rebuttable presumption arises that the contributing spouse has made a gift of one-half the property to the other spouse. The contributing spouse bears the burden of proof otherwise. However, in O'Hair v. O'Hair, 109 Ariz. 236, 508 P.2d 66 (1973), we held that no such presumption of gift arises when a spouse deposits separate property funds in a joint bank account. Rather, the extent of the...