Woodall v. Woodall

• Decision Date: 07 August 1972
• Docket Number: No. 630,630
• Citation: 16 Md.App. 17,293 A.2d 839
• Parties: Connie H. WOODALL v. Thomas B. WOODALL, Sr.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 17

16 Md.App. 17

293 A.2d 839

Connie H. WOODALL v. Thomas B. WOODALL, Sr.

No. 630.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 7, 1972.

Joseph C. Roesser, Wheaton, with whom were Arthur V. Butler, and Butler & Roesser, Wheaton, on the brief, for appellant.

Vincent L. Gingerich, Takoma Park, for appellee.

Argued before MORTON, MOYLAN and CARTER, JJ.

CARTER, Judge.

The appellant, Connie H. Woodall, was awarded a divorce a vinculo matrimonii from the appellee, Thomas B. Woodall, Sr., by Judge Samuel J. DeBlasis, sitting in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County. The decree also provided that custody of the three minor children of the parties be awarded to the appellant, that the appellee pay to the appellant the sum of $165 per week for the 'support and maintenance' of herself and the two youngest children, and that the appellee pay to the wife's Attorneys the sum of $2500 for legal services and the sum of $500 to the detective agency for investigative services. The decree further declared that the parties were joint owners of the household furniture and effects except for an electric organ and guns which were determined to be the property of the husband, that 1622 shares of stock of Quality Courts Motels, Inc. registered in the joint names of the parties were jointly owned by them, and that all stock registered in the name of the husband was his individual property. The wife appealed from the decree contending (1) that the order declaring the stock registered in the name of her husband to be his individual property was in error, (2) that the chancellor erred in failing to separate the amount of support awarded her from that awarded to her children and that both awards were inadequate, (3) that the amount required to be paid by the husband toward the charges for legal services rendered the wife was inadequate, and (4) that the amount required to be paid by the husband toward the expense of investigative services rendered the wife in this suit was inadequate.

FACTS

The evidence showed that the parties were married in 1950. For a time in 1966 they separated because of the husband's alleged adultery but reconciled in July 1966. Thereafter they continued to live together until August 1970 when the husband left the home and took up residence in an apartment in Washington, D.C. where he established an adulterous relationship with another woman. At the time of trial in September 1971 the wife was 45 years of age and the husband was 41. There were three children born of the marriage, namely, Thomas Jr., Lynn, and Tracey, whose present ages are 18, 15, and 10 respectively. Thomas is presently self supporting.

The husband was Secretary-Treasurer of a family-owned corporation, T. M. Woodall, Inc., which operated a plastering contract business. His annual income for the year 1970 as reflected by his federal income tax return showed an adjusted gross income of $20,244 before taxes. In his brief he states that his gross income before taxes from all sources in 1970 was $30,900. There is also a wide discrepancy in the husband's net worth figures. In his routine financial statement to the Suburban Trust Company dated December 10, 1970, he showed his net worth to be $360,000. An unaudited financial statement prepared at his instance by certified public accountants dated August 11, 1971 showed his net worth as $242,000. He explained this decline in his financial worth by pointing out that his stock holdings in Quality Courts Motels Inc. had decreased in value. The wife testified that she was employed as a registered nurse on an average of three days a week at The National Institute of Health. Her earnings at present are $111.30 for a three day week or approximately $6,000 annually. If she works five days a week, her earnings amount to $185 per week or approximately $9,300 per year. She presently works part-time in order to spend more time with her youngest son who is residing with her. The wife's statement as to her needs showed the sum of $1238.50 a month for the support and maintenance of herself and her children without any apportionment of the total figure.

In respect to the wife's financial contributions to the purchase of stock that is now in the husband's name, the evidence showed the following. Prior to the birth of their first child in 1953 all of the earnings of both the husband and wife went into a joint bank account primarily for the operation of the household and their joint benefit. In February 1968 she began working on a full time basis for The National Institute of Health at her husband's suggestion because he was unable to finance the household. Her earnings at that time amounted to about $7,000 per annum. She gave half of these earnings to her husband and the other half she spent on food for the family and clothes for herself and the boys. After June 1969 she discontinued any contributions to her husband personally or to any joint account. She further testified that up until the separation in August 1970 she had signed many notes jointly with her husband. The wife testified that she did now know for what purposes the husband used the money he obtained by these notes but that about 1960 he had told her he was using it to buy stock. The husband testified that all monies realized from loans secured on the joint signatures of him and his wife went directly into his individual bank account as did any monies given him directly by his wife and that all stock in his individual name was paid for by checks drawn against this account. He further stated that his wife had never paid anything on the joint notes and that she had no contingent liability thereon to Suburban Trust Company at the time of trial. He also testified that he had approximately 27,000 shares of Quality Courts Motels, Inc. stock in his individual name and that there were 1622 shares of this stock in the joint names of him and his wife. The husband further explained that the 27,000 shares in his name represented stock issued to him by Quality Courts Motels, Inc. in exchange for his stock holdings in three corporations that had merged with 'Quality.' However, he pointed out that 'Quality' stock is presently in the status of unregistered stock which cannot be sold until the Security and Exchange Commission approves the merger.

The same accounting firm that submitted the financial statement of the husband also submitted a similar financial statement of T. M. Woodall, Inc. This statement was also unaudited but was represented by the appellee to be correct. It showed a net worth of the company as of December 31, 1970 of $193,000. However, the husband in his financial statement to the Baltimore Federal Savings and Loan Association in April 1971 listed his one-fifth interest in the company (100 shares) as having a value of $85,000 thus indicating the net worth of the company (500 shares) to be $425,000 at that time.

The bill submitted by counsel for the wife claimed the sum of $5,047.56. It was composed of time spent in preparation for trial at the rate of $40 per hour, one trial day at the rate of $375, and the cost of reproducing financial records. The bill submitted by the detective agency for investigative services amounted to $2,254.18. The wife had previously paid the sum of $1310 on account of the services of counsel and the detective agency. There was no evidence to show how this payment was apportioned. A member of the law firm that represented the wife in the preparation and trial of the instant case testified that in his opinion the charges in both bills were fair and reasonable and in accordance with the usual charges for similar services in the community.

After the decree was signed the chancellor passed an order requiring the husband to pay a fee of $375 to the wife's counsel for representing her in this appeal. The fee was made subject to modification by this Court.

I

The wife's first contention that she is legally entitled to an interest in the stock registered in her husband's name is without merit. Her contention is based on the following grounds: (1) that she co-signed the notes upon which her husband borrowed the money to buy the stock, (2) that she gave her husband money from her personal earnings from time to time, and (3) that she relieved her husband of some of his legal obligations to maintain the home by contributing to this expense from her personal earnings.

Md. Code, Art. 16, § 29 provides in substance that whenever a court shall grant a divorce, it shall have the power to determine all questions between the parties in connection with the ownership of personal property and to make a division of such property between them. This statute, passed in 1947, was discussed and construed in Lopez v. Lopez, 206 Md. 509, 112 A.2d 466. The Court of Appeals there pointed out the general rule that in divorce proceedings a court of equity has no power, unless conferred by statute, to transfer the property of either spouse to the other. In that case, the 1947 act was construed as going 'no further than to empower a court of equity, in decreeing a divorce, to determine the ownership of the personal property of the parties and to apportion the property accordingly.' At page 517, 112 A.2d at page 470. The Court went on to say, at page 518, 112 A.2d at page 470, that 'the court obviously cannot make an adjustment of property rights where the wife never contributed anything toward the purchase of the husband's property.'

The same statute was further construed by the Court of Appeals in Gebhard v. Gebhard, 253 Md. 125, 252 A.2d 171, which involved, as does the present case, title to securities registered in the name of the husband. The trial judge in Gebhard had found that the wife was a complete home- maker, doing all the housework and, in addition, kept books and handled the home office of the husband. He felt that the securities were accumulated in part from income to which the wife contributed as homemaker,...