No. 92-464 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA 1993

IN RE THE MARRIAGE OF LAVONNE L. WESTLAND, Petitioner and Respondent, and ROBERT 

### R. WESTLAND, Respondent and Appellant.

APPEAL FROM: Distr-kt Court of the Seventeenth Judicial District, In and for the County of Valley, The Honorable M. James Sorte, Judge presiding.

COUNSEL OF RECORD: For Appellant: Matthew W. Knierim, Attorney at Law, Glasgow, Montana For Respondent: Keith Maristuen, Bosch, Kuhr, Dugdale, Martin & Kaze, Havre, Montana

Submitted on Briefs: January 28, 1993 Q 9iQQ I-rfiir PI r~r Decided: March 2, 1993 

# -.. .Chief Justice J. A. Turnage delivered the Opinion of the Court. The District Court for the Seventeenth Judicial District, Valley County,entered judgment dissolving themarriage of LaVonne Westland and Robert Westland and apportioning their large ranch between them. Robert Westland appeals. We affirm, and remand in part for clarification. The issues are: 1. Do the District Court's findings, conclusions, and decree legitimately and adequately provide for division of the marital property? 2. Do thecourt's findings, conclusions,and decree adequately divide or assess responsibility for theparties' indebtedness? 3. Do thecourt's findings, conclusions,and decree adequately address and assess responsibility 

### for tile tax consequences of its division of the ranch operation? LaVonneand Robert Westland entered into a common lawmarriage in 1958. At that time,Robert owned 3,562acres of real property in eastern Montana, some equipment and machinery, about 100head of cattle, some horses, grain, and feed. LaVonne owned a limited amount of personal property. By the time their marriage was dissolved in 1992, the parties had acquired an extensive farming and ranching operation of over 34,000acres. Theirmarital estate

was valued at over sixmillion dollars,with some two and one-halfmillion dollars of indebtedness. The living children of their marriage have all attained the age of majority. At trial,Robertproposed thathe be awarded the entire ranch and thathepay LaVonne $50,000 a year as aproperty settlementand maintenance. Instead, following LaVonne's proposal, the District Court divided themarital property, apportioning the "Northplacew to LaVonne and the "South place" toRobert. LaVonne testified that this division of the ranch property, with 59 percent going to Robert and 41 percent to her, was consistent with the way the parties had divided responsibility for operation of the ranch for years. Robert appeals the order and judgment of the District Court. I Do the District Court?s Iindings, conclusions, and decree adequately and legitimately provide for division of the marital property? Robert allows that LaVonne worked hard as a farm wife and mother. He contends, however, that the court did not give him enough credit for the property he brought into the marriage. He claims that his premarital property must now be worth in excess of two million dollars due to inflation alone. Upon dissolution of amarriage, premarital property, or the value thereof, isnot necessarily returned to thepartywho brought it into the marriage. Section 40-4-202,MCA: In re Marriage ofPeetz (1992), 252 Mont. 448, 454, 830 P.2d 543, 547. The court's responsibility is to equitably apportionmarital property, taking into account, among other factors, the duration of the marriage 

# . . . ; the aye, health, station, occupation, amount and sources of income, vocational skills, employability, estate, liabilities, and needs of each of the parties; 

## . 

# . . whether the apportionment is in lieu of or in addition to maintenance; and theopportunity of each for future acquisition of capital assets and income. The court shall also consider the contribution or dissipation of value of the respective estates and the contribution of a spouse as a homemaker or to the family unit. Section 40-4-202(1)

## , MCA. In this case,LaVonne's contributionsto the ranch during the parties' thirty-four-year marriage and her dependence upon the marital estate for her future support were not contested. Her undisputed testimony was that she had done the "woman's workw of raising the parties' children, keeping house, and feeding ranch hands, and, in addition, served as a ranch hand and bookkeeper. She testified that, in fact, she had been in charge of the "North place" since themid-1970's. LaVonne's contribution to the family and to the farm and ranch clearly facilitated the maintenance, appreciation, and growth of all of the marital assets, including those Robert brought into the marriage. We conclude that the District Court did not err in its disposition of thepropertywhich Robert brought to the marriage.As stated above, Robert took the position at trial that he should be awarded all of the parties' real property and pay maintenance to LaVonne. In its finding number 48, the District Court reasoned as follows in rejecting Robert's proposal: Payments over a period of time, particularly at the amount of $50,000.00 a year, would not be equitable, since [Robert] would have all the marital assets at his disposal and whim. [LaVonne]would have no assurance of her annual payment. [Robert] could encumber or transfer assets to [LaVonne's] detriment, and [LaVonne] would remain liable for any existing debts of the parties including debts to the Farm Credit Services and Farmers Home Administration. In the event [Robert] filed a petition in Bankruptcy Court, [LaVonne's]payment might be found to be unsecured. In the event of [Robert's: death prior to [LaVonne's] death, [LaVonnels]payments are at risk in view of the federal estate tax problems. UnderMontana's statutory scheme,maintenancewould be proper only if LaVonne lacked sufficient property to provide for her reasonable needs and was unable to support herself through appropriateemployment. Section 40-4-203, MCA. However, following the court's division of the marital property, it appears that LaVonne will be able to support herself through operation of the "Northplace." We have concluded that there isno reversible error in the District Court's decision to divide the marital property between theparties. The court'sproperty distribution eliminates the need formaintenance. Robert argues that the District Court had no power to distribute ranch property held by Westland Ranches, Inc. At the time of trial, stock inWestland Ranches, Inc.,was owned by Robert(498shares), LaVonne (one share), and an attorney (one share). A significant portion of the parties' real property was held by Westland Ranches, Inc. Inasmuch as it was an asset of the parties, the corporate stock was a marital asset subject to the court's distribution in the dissolution of marriage. Section 40-4-202(I), MCA: Beck v. Beck (1983), 203 Mont. 455, 460, 661 P.2d 1282, 1285. We conclude that the District Court had the power to order distribution of Robert's interest in Westland Ranches, Inc. Although, asRobert points out,there isno order specifically transferring Robert's stock inWestland Ranches, Inc., to LaVonne, the court found that "the partition action could be effected by transferring the corporate sharesto LaVonne 

## . . . ." The findings wilile -7 .~.. .. -L.-. L. LL- and coriciusioris, not artfilly drafted, ue~~tur~sc~act. LIE court's intent thatRobert transfer his shares inWestlandRanches, Inc., to LaVonne as part of the property distribution. Robert also contends that the courtdid not provide a rational

or complete directive for dividing the marital estate. LaVonne offered extensive expert testimony concerning the workability of dividing the ranch into the "North place" and the "Southplace" as separate units. The court found, at its finding number 51, that [tlhe partitioning action would be relatively simple since the major portion of the land allocated to LaVonne is owned by the corporation. The Stellflug, Fox Coulee and Welch lands are transferred into the corporation, in exchange for the Neufeld CRP lands. Additionally, themachinery, equipment and vehicles are exchanged in and out of the corporation according to Table Seven of [LaVonne's expert's] Report. The historical intention was tohave approximately 50 percent of the livestock in the corporation. Therefore, with a few changes, the partition action could be effected by transferring the corporate sharesto LaVonne and with two exchanges, land and machinery. The exhibits to the court's findings list the real and personal property awarded to each party. The District Court left to the parties and their counsel the responsibility of carrying out the exchanges of title to property necessary to execute its division of marital property. In this manner, the court allowed the parties some discretion in achieving theproperty distribution while avoiding the tremendous tax burden Robert predicts. If this presents insurmountable problems of execution,the partiesmay return to the District Court for further specific orders following this appeal. We hold that it was within the power and discretion of the court to divide the marital property as it did and that no error has been shown.

11 Do the court's findings, conclusions, and decree adequately divide or assess responsibility for the parties' indebtedness? Robert claims the court ignored allocation of the ranch indebtedness. The court found that the livestock shouldbe divided equally after payment of the Farm Credit Services operating loan. It also referred to theproposal of LaVonne'sexpert,who suggestedthat the total amount of debt be divided in likeproportion to the division of total amount of property owned, or 59 percent toRobert and 41percent to LaVonne. However,neither the court's findings, conclusions, and decree nor the proposal of LaVonne's expert specifies which debtsRobert is topay and which LaVonne is topay. LaVonne suggeststhat thisCourt either reform the judgmentto showwhat was intended as to the marital debts or remand the case

so that the District Courtmay amend the judgment to showwhat was intended. A court has the power to amend its own judgment to expresswhat it originally decided or to grant the relief originally intended. In reMarriage of Cannon (1985), 215 Mont. 272, 275, 697 P.2d 901, 902-03. We remand thismatter to the District Court

so that it may amend its judgment to indicate which specific maritai debts are Robert's responsibility and which are LaVonne's. 111 Do the court's findings, conclusions, and decree adequately address and assess responsibility for the tax consequences of its division of the ranch operation? In his brief on appeal, Robert states that his position at trial was that this was an appropriate case for a lifetime maintenance award so he did not feel obligated to assist the opposition in figuring the tax ramifications of their various proposals to chop up the ranching operation or invade the corporate property. Now that the District Court has adopted LaVonne's proposal to divide theranch,Robert complainsthat the courtdid not adequate-ly consider the tax consequences of that option. The District Court was only obligated to consider the evidence presented to it. The evidencewas that therewould be tax consequencesno matter how the courtdistributed themarital property. We hold that no error hasbeen shown in the court's consideration of the tax consequences of its distribution of marital property. Affirmed, and remanded in part for clarification.

We concur:March 2, 193 CERTIFICATEOFSERVICE Ihereby certifythat thefollowingorderwas sentby UnitedStatesmail, prepaid, to the followingnamed:

MatthewW.Knierim AttorneyatLaw P.O. Box29 Clasgow,MT 59230 KeithMarisiuen Bosch,Kuhr,Dugdale,Martin&Kaze P.O.Box7152 Havre,MT 59501 ED

### SMITII CLERKOFTHESUPREME COURT STATEOFMONTANA