Opinion ID: 1983357
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Assignment of the Marital Estate

Text: We first consider plaintiff's contention that intervenors' appeal was not timely filed and is therefore not properly before this court. On March 26, 1993, intervenors filed their notice of appeal from the September 16, 1992 decision pending entry of final judgment and from the March 23, 1993 order that concluded the award of counsel fees. This Court will consider only cases in which all issues involving all parties have been addressed by other tribunals. The only exception to this rule occurs in those cases in which an express entry of a final judgment has been entered in accordance with Rule 54(b) of the Rules of Procedure for Domestic Relations. All parties conceded that the issue of attorney's fees was unresolved as of September 16, 1992, when the decision pending entry of final judgment was entered. The issue of counsel fees was a substantial one in this case, requiring no fewer than five separate hearings and involving an award of over $30,000. In such circumstances, it could not reasonably be concluded that all matters in this case were resolved as of September 16, 1992. Because a Rule 54(b) motion was not entered, we conclude that the issues were not resolved until the order of March 23, 1993, was entered, at which time all issues in the case had been addressed. Therefore, intervenors appeal of March 26, 1993, was timely filed, and the issues raised therein will be considered in our review of the assignment of the marital estate. Before evaluating and distributing a marital estate, the trial justice must first separate the marital from the nonmarital assets. Lepore v. Lepore, 620 A.2d 1262 (R.I. 1993). On appeal, intervenor Nancy Mattera and defendant argued that the general master had erred in determining that Pilgrim Motors, Inc. (Pilgrim), and Matthew Realty, Inc. (Matthew), were marital assets subject to equitable distribution. This Court will not disturb a trial justice's findings unless it can be shown that the justice was clearly wrong or has overlooked or misconceived material evidence. Lancellotti v. Lancellotti, 481 A.2d 7, 10-11 (R.I. 1984); Wordell v. Wordell, 470 A.2d 665, 667 (R.I. 1984). The record before us reveals that defendant's mother, Nancy Mattera, testified at trial that she was the sole owner of both Pilgrim and Matthew and that defendant had never owned shares in the corporation. She presented several witnesses on her behalf, including John Paterra, legal counsel for the Rhode Island Division of Taxation, and also presented documentary evidence that she was, at all relevant times, the sole owner of Pilgrim and Matthew. This evidence included stock certificates for both corporations, gift-tax and estate-tax returns, and the last will and testament of her late husband, John Mattera. The record, however, is devoid of material evidence such as corporate resolutions or copies of stock certificates to establish that defendant had an ownership interest in Pilgrim or Matthew. We note that although Pilgrim's 1983 corporate-tax returns and Matthew's 1984 corporate-tax returns do list defendant as a stockholder in those corporations during 1983 and 1984, subsequent tax returns do not attribute to defendant an ownership interest in either corporation. We further note that Robert Gelineau (Gelineau), a certified public accountant who prepared the corporate-tax returns for Pilgrim and Matthew, testified that the only stockholders were Nancy Mattera and her late husband. Gelineau admitted that he did alter certain of Matthew's tax returns by removing defendant's name, along with others, and listing the percentage of ownership interest, but he then invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege in regard to all other aspects of the case. Without Gelineau's testimony to explain the discrepancy in the tax-return evidence and absent more conclusive documentary evidence in support of plaintiff's position, we are not persuaded that the evidence before the trial master established by a fair preponderance of the evidence that defendant held ownership interests in Pilgrim and Matthew, particularly in light of the evidence suggesting that Nancy Mattera was the sole owner of the two corporations. For these reasons, we conclude that without additional evidence on the record to support his decision, the general master erred in determining that Pilgrim and Matthew were marital assets subject to equitable distribution. Consequently, we remand the case to the Family Court for further findings on the ownership interests of Pilgrim and Matthew and for a retrial on the assignment of all property involving the alleged interests of Nancy Mattera.