Opinion ID: 1220145
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: appraisal costs.

Text: In the course of pre-trial proceedings, the trial court ordered: 1. The parties shall cooperate in appraising marital assets by inventorying the same and arranging for appraisals/opinion letters which fairly value the contents of the marital estate. Each party shall be responsible for obtaining valuations for the items which they have in their possession and control. 2. The parties shall split all costs associated with obtaining the appraisals contemplated in paragraph 1 of this order. (Emphasis added). The original findings are silent about appraisal costs. When Gary requested the trial court to make additional findings regarding appraisal costs, it refused to do so, crossing out the appraisal costs paragraph of a proposed order prepared by Gary's counsel. In effect, each party was required to pay for any appraisals he or she obtained. Gary obtained an appraisal and an opinion letter on the Anchorage house at a total cost of $430, duplicating the appraisal obtained by Sheri at a cost of $300. Since Sheri was residing in the Anchorage house, it was not in Gary's possession and control. Therefore, the appraisal and opinion letter obtained by Gary on the Anchorage house were not appraisals contemplated in paragraph 1 of the pre-trial order. The trial court correctly refused to order Sheri to share these costs. As for the remaining appraisal costs, Gary obtained an appraisal of his Seattle condominium and his teamster pension, which cost $350 and $370 respectively (totalling $720) and were appraisals contemplated by the order. Thus, Sheri would owe Gary one-half the difference between what he had paid for appraisals contemplated in paragraph one ($720) and what she had paid ($300), or $210. However, given the great disparity in the parties' earning capacities, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in requiring Gary to pay $210 more for appraisals than Sheri.