Opinion ID: 1933994
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: evidence regarding fela settlement

Text: The wife claims that even if the analytical approach was to be applied to the instant case, the husband failed to carry his burden of proving the nonmarital character of the $98,750 annuity. We disagree. After reappraising the evidence and reaching our own independent conclusions by applying the analytical approach to our de novo review of the record, we determine that the Court of Appeals correctly concluded that the trial court abused its discretion in treating the $98,750 annuity as marital property and dividing it between the husband and the wife. Our de novo review of the record discloses that the husband received his last paycheck from Burlington Northern on June 15, 1992. The husband and Burlington Northern executed the Release on August 26. Consequently, the husband was owed past wages for the time period between June 15 and August 26. Based upon a $31,000 per year income with Burlington Northern, wages for that period were roughly $6,450. Subtracting that sum from the total settlement figure of $251,744 leaves a remaining sum of $245,294 as compensation for loss of future earnings or pain and suffering as of the Release date. The marriage, however, continued for approximately 5 years after the settlement was made and before the August 1997 divorce decree. The Court of Appeals correctly pointed out that a portion of the remaining $245,294, to the extent that it represented future lost wages in August 1992, was obviously past lost wages by August 1997 when the divorce decree was entered. We must determine whether the husband proved what portion of the $245,294 is attributable to pre-August 1997 lost wages (marital property) versus postdivorce loss of future earnings (nonmarital property). The Court of Appeals analyzed the evidence two ways: [The husband] and Burlington [Northern] allocated the sum of approximately $54,000 for time lost for the time period from July 1, 1992, through May 31, 1996.... If we accept the $54,000 allocation and additionally assume that [the husband] earned no wages between May 31, 1996, and the date of the divorce decree (an assumption favoring [the wife] as it is clear that at some point [the husband] was re-employed), approximately another $35,000 would be attributable to lost wages, again based on a $30,000 annual income. This results in a total amount of lost wages for the period of July 1992 through August 1997 of roughly $89,000 ($54,000 plus $35,000); leaving approximately $156,500 of the total settlement remaining as compensation for [the husband's] future losses as of the time of the divorce. If we entirely ignore the Release's allocation of [the husband's] lost wages for the stated time period, we reach a similar conclusion. At the time of this settlement, [the husband's] worklife was approximately 22 years. If we simply divide the $245,294 balance remaining as of August 1992 by 22 years, thus attributing that entire amount to future lost wages and none of it to nonmarital pain and suffering, one arrives at a figure of slightly over $11,000 per year. This establishes an annual figure designed to compensate for [the husband's] lost earnings or diminished capacity from age 40 in August 1992 through age 62. At that rate, some $55,000 to $60,000 of the remaining compensation would be amortized over the approximately 5-year period the parties remained married after the Release date. Using the $60,000 figure, approximately $185,500 of the settlement remained as compensation for [the husband's] postdivorce loss of wages or diminished earning capacity. Parde v. Parde, 8 Neb.App. 242, 251-52, 591 N.W.2d 783, 789 (1999). We agree. Moreover, even if we assumed, despite evidence to the contrary, that the husband had no earnings for the 5-year period in question and that a full $31,000 was lost to the marital estate during that time, only $155,000 of the total settlement amount could be attributable to the past lost wages as of the time of the decree. This hypothetical calculation is absurd in light of the evidence that the husband did return to work as a respiratory therapist sometime in that 5-year period at the rate of $26,000 per year. Nevertheless, even using this calculation, nearly $90,300 would remain as compensation for the husband's postdivorce lost earnings. Regardless of the analysis employed, the bottom line is this. The money received in August 1992 at the time the Release was signedsome $152,994, less taxes and a lienwent into the marriage and is now, according to the trial court's finding, reflected in the parties' remaining assets. That sum more than adequately compensated the marital estate, in advance, for any losses it might have suffered due to the husband's lost wages during the marriage. Indeed, as the Court of Appeals noted, it might be argued that the marital estate has already received a windfall. The district court's conclusion that the remaining $98,750 annuity should also be considered part of the marital estate is clearly untenable and deprives the husband of a substantial right and a just result. See Bondi v. Bondi, 255 Neb. 319, 586 N.W.2d 145 (1998). In reaching this conclusion, we have considered the wife's argument that the husband failed to meet his burden of proof because he could not establish, by direct evidence, that the remaining unpaid amount through the annuity carried a specific designation showing it was for a nonmarital purpose. While the husband's evidence did not consist of a settlement document with a tidy breakdown of each dollar of the settlement into well-defined categories, the testimony of Savidge, when considered with the language of the Release itself and the settlement as a whole, proved what portion of the entire settlement is to be reasonably considered as lost wages during the marriage and, thus, as a marital asset. By proving what portion of the entire settlement should be considered as a marital asset, the husband has necessarily proved what portion could properly be viewed as nonmarital property. The Court of Appeals was correct in its determination. We have considered the wife's other assignments of error and find them to be without merit.