Opinion ID: 1929865
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Failure to Specifically Value and Divide Marital Property

Text: Finally, Taj argues that the district court erred by not first valuing the assets and liabilities of the marital estate and then dividing the marital estate in accordance with the principles stated in § 42-365. In connection with this argument, Taj notes that the district court failed to dispose of the Toyota owned by the parties. We first address Taj's contention that the district court failed to dispose of the Toyota. We agree with Taj that no explicit disposition of the Toyota was made in the decree. However, the decree did award to each party the property currently in his and her possession, and Taj's undisputed testimony was that the Toyota was in Parveen's possession. While we agree that it might have been simpler for the district court to have explicitly awarded the Toyota to Parveen, we conclude that such an award is implicit in the court's decree. With regard to the district court's property division, the record reveals the following: Parveen was awarded the marital home, valued at $180,000, subject to a $108,000 mortgage. As noted above, we can also discern from the decree that she was awarded the Toyota, valued at $1,500. Taj was awarded the Honda Civic, valued at $17,000, subject to a $16,500 encumbrance. The parties were each assessed $12,500 in marital debt. The district court equalized the estate by awarding Taj one-half the equity in the home, totaling $36,000. Without including any personal property in the estate, the marital estate was valued at $49,000 ($72,000 value of the house, plus $500 for the Honda, plus $1,500 for the Toyota, less $25,000 of marital debt). The decree awarded each party the personal property in his and her possession, and we note that it is not entirely clear who had possession of some of those items of personal property. We also agree with Taj that the decree does not explicitly set forth the value of the personal property in the marital estate. However, a review of the record reveals that Taj assigned a value to the personal property of $8,001, including the $1,500 value for the Toyota, which we previously acknowledged was in Parveen's possession and thus was awarded to her. We have included that $1,500 above in the estate apart from personal property. Therefore, the total value of the marital estate, using Taj's figures, was $55,501. Assuming that Parveen had all of the personal property in her possession (and it is clear from the record that this was not the case), the decree awarded her $31,501, or 57 percent of the marital estate, while Taj received $24,000, or 43 percent of the marital estate. Although the division of property is not subject to a precise mathematical formula, the general rule is to award a spouse one-third to one-half of the marital estate, the polestar being fairness and reasonableness as determined by the facts of each case. Gress v. Gress, 271 Neb. 122, 710 N.W.2d 318 (2006). We conclude that where Parveen was awarded at most 57 percent of the marital estate and Taj 43 percent, such a division is within the general rule and was not an abuse of discretion. We accordingly conclude that the district court's property division was not an abuse of discretion.