Case Name: Earnest BEASLEY, Appellant, v. Barbara BEASLEY, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1987-02-11
Citations: 508 So. 2d 23
Docket Number: No. 4-86-0663
Parties: Earnest BEASLEY, Appellant, v. Barbara BEASLEY, Appellee.
Judges: DELL, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 508
Pages: 23–26

Head Matter:
Earnest BEASLEY, Appellant, v. Barbara BEASLEY, Appellee.
No. 4-86-0663.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
Feb. 11, 1987.
Rehearing Denied June 26, 1987.
Patrick C. Rastatter of Glass & Rastat-ter, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.
Andrew L. Siegel of Andrew L. Siegel, P.A., Plantation, for appellee.

Opinion:
GLICKSTEIN, Judge.
This is an appeal of a final order dissolving a marriage and distributing the assets of the marriage. We affirm the trial court's distribution of the marital home but reverse the distribution of the vacant lot and remand with direction to distribute the latter to both parties as tenants in common.
The parties were married in 1962 and resided together through the final dissolution hearing. The husband was continually employed during the marriage and the wife began working after having a child, in 1963. At the time of dissolution, the husband was employed by the Broward County Appraiser's office with an annual gross salary of $19,000.00, while the wife was employed at an approximate annual gross income of $27,000.00. Each of the parties received similar health, dental, and related benefits from their respective employers.
I.
Upon the issue of distribution of the marital home, the wife testified that for 22 years of marriage she had been "supporting the house"; that she made all but approximately two payments on the marital home, that the husband never gave her any money for the house; that prior to 1983, she paid the property taxes on their home; that the husband never gave her any money for household expenses and he only paid for food three times; that he did not contribute to her car payments if she was the user of the car, that in 1982, she was having trouble meeting all the expenses because she was also paying her daughter's college tuition; that the husband paid the light bills occasionally; that she paid for improvements to the house including a garage and family room; that if she asked her husband for money she would receive verbal and physical abuse and that she paid for everything in the house with the exception of one room of furniture; that when the house was purchased she contributed the down payment of $550 by borrowing money from her credit union; that she paid for the vast majority of food, for the exterminator, water, and for the telephone and that she had borrowed $2,700 to pay off a car so it would not be repossessed.
The husband testified that after the first year of marriage, the parties separated their finances and maintained separate bank accounts because neither party could agree as to how the money was to be spent; that he used his paycheck to support his household and family; that he paid his bills by cash; that he paid all of the bills for the first year of the marriage because the wife was unemployed; that the parties came to an agreement in 19.82 as to who would pay the bills; that prior to 1982 the husband stated that he paid "the taxes and the water bills, the light bill and any other bill that is due"; that he had repair work done on the home; but then seemed to say that his wife paid for these repairs, and that he would give his wife money which she could use for whatever she wanted.
The trial court awarded the wife 75% interest in the marital home. In doing so, it said:
The marital home — this is not the traditional marriage as most marriages are today, where the Wife stayed home and the Husband went into the business world and brought home the funds to run the home. The Wife was a working wife throughout her 23 years of marriage. So, she had a dual capacity as both a homemaker and a breadwinner. And, that special extra contribution over and above the traditional marital role was a general equitable distribution.
I find the Wife is entitled to 75 percent of the value of the home, or interest rate [sic] and title of the home. And, the Husband is entitled to 25 percent of the splitting of the home. The Husband's interest in the home is awarded to the Wife because of her dual role.
There was precedent for the trial court's distribution of the marital home under the reasonable person test of Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So.2d 1197 (Fla.1980). See Tommaney v. Tommaney, 405 So.2d 454 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981). We cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion.
II.
With respect to the vacant lot, which was the subject of a warranty deed from the wife's parents, to the parties, bearing minimal documentary stamps, the wife testified that she paid $700 for it by borrowing from the teachers' union and taking the rest from her checking account; that the husband contributed nothing to the lot; that her father had promised her the lot and that she has paid the ad valorem taxes on it since 1974. On direct examination, she testified as follows:
MR. SIEGEL: Do you know how Earnest's name got on this deed to the lot?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I do. I had given my dad money, and he had gone with my mother to have the lot put in our names because my parents are very traditional. They feel that if you are husband and wife, then that's it. The thing belongs to you, together as a whole.
On cross-examination, the wife, a teacher, testified that her father needed $700.00 for an automobile; that the lot conveyed to the parties was worth more than four times the $700.00; and that in her mind, it was a gift because of the difference in what she provided her father and the value of the lot. All of the foregoing seems very reasonable.
The wife's candor on direct examination is admirable. She told it just as it was. Unfortunately, the final judgment does not logically flow from her testimony in that the trial court, instead of finding a gift from the wife's parents to both parties said:
I find that the vacant lot in Boca Raton was a gift to the Wife from her father, and that the husband's name was merely for convenience. The lot, therefore, is awarded 100 percent; the rights, title and interest to the Wife.
The record does not support such finding; and the husband's testimony adds nothing as he said he knew nothing about the matter. Unfortunately, this is another instance of a parental gift being made in light of present domestic harmony without any apparent concern for subsequent, or unknown, disharmony. We say unfortunately only because of a hindsight view of the foregoing which the trial court may have been attempting to rectify by its judgment. The wife's sole theory for establishing a special equity is contained in paragraph 13 of her complaint in which she asserts it was a gift to her from the father. We agree that it was, in large measure, a gift, but not solely to her.
DELL, J., concurs.
STONE, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with opinion.