Opinion ID: 1296720
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preservation of the Marital Estate

Text: C.B. maintains that other factors should have been considered, including the substantial sums which he expended in order to preserve the marital estate. This court has required that trial courts consider payments made to maintain marital property from post-separation income when dividing marital property. Ramsey v. Ramsey, 834 P.2d 807, 809 (Alaska 1992). [T]he fact that one party has made payments from non-marital income to preserve marital property should be considered as one of the circumstances to be weighed by the trial court in dividing the marital property. Id. The court's Findings show no consideration of C.B.'s preservation of the marital estate from post-marital earnings. Furthermore, as discussed supra, by valuing the checking accounts at the date of separation, the court failed to consider that C.B. used his account to pay post-separation marital debts while Vicki used hers for her separate expenses. This court has consistently ... considered the conduct of the parties with respect to the marital property and debts after separation a relevant factor in determining a just division. Oberhansly v. Oberhansly, 798 P.2d 883, 885 (Alaska 1990). For example, in Jones, 835 P.2d at 1177, the husband argued that he should have been given credit for $6,889 in house payments made from his own funds after separation. We remanded to the trial court for further consideration of whether the property distribution should have been adjusted accordingly. Likewise, in Oberhansly, the court held that it was proper for the superior court to consider one party's fault in allowing most of the household debts to fall into default and in paying personal debts out of marital assets. Oberhansly, 798 P.2d at 885. In the present case, we remand for the trial court to determine whether C.B.'s payment of the marital debts from post-separation earnings and his personal checking account, as well as Vicki's expenditure of marital assets for post-separation expenses, should cause a change in the property distribution. [7]