Opinion ID: 1261484
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: First: Is the judgment, of which complaint is here made, consistent with the mandate of this court in cause number 16003?

Text: This question is answered in the affirmative. Counsel for plaintiffs in error contend that the trial court did not follow our mandate in cause No. 16003 in the rendition of the judgment to which the writ of error issued herein is directed. The trial court, in the judgment reviewed in cause No. 16003, ordered that plaintiffs in error should establish an irrevocable trust sufficient to provide an income of $450.00 per month for defendant in error, in addition to the benefits she theretofore had received under the terms of a separation agreement with her husband. In considering that judgment we said: The judgment of the trial court is affirmed in so far as it sustains the right of plaintiff to recover damages. The judgment is reversed in so far as it purports to create a trust for the benefit of plaintiff. The cause is remanded with directions to enter a money judgment for such sum as shall be determined by the court, from the evidence heard upon the trial, as will result in a fair and equitable division of property as required under Kansas law. Plaintiffs in error contend that under this mandate, the trial court could only award the defendant in error a sum of money sufficient to yield a monthly income of $450.00 per month, because, as argued, the first judgment in effect amounted to a finding that a sum sufficient to provide that income would constitute a fair and equitable division of property between defendant in error and her husband at the time of their separation. The contention is stated by counsel for plaintiffs in error as follows: We submit that all that was necessary for the Trial Court to do and all that it should have done in order to comply with the Mandate of this Court in Cause No. 16003 was to convert a $450 monthly income to its present money value and then to enter judgment for that amount. As above stated, and as a mere matter of mathematics, this would require a money judgment in the neighborhood of $150,000. It is apparent from the whole record in the controversy before us that the trial court, in entering the judgment in cause No. 16003, did not attempt to make a fair and equitable division of property as of the date of the separation of defendant in error and her husband. It also is clear that the first judgment was not rendered in contemplation of the right of defendant in error to receive outright that portion of the property which would amount to a fair and equitable division of assets. Upon the contrary it affirmatively appears that the trial court then based its judgment upon an appraisal of the needs of the wife. In answer to the contention here made, in entering the judgment now before us, the trial court said: It will be noted that if the Supreme Court had wished such a judgment entered, based on the finding of the court as to the Trust, it would have directed this court to so enter it; but it sent it back with instructions to enter a money judgment not based alone on the needs of plaintiff but based on a fair and equitable division of the property. (Italics supplied.) This indicates clearly that the trial court had not at any time prior to the entry of the judgment now under review undertaken a property division consistent with the law of Kansas which requires a fair and equitable apportionment thereof. Accordingly the trial court committed no error in refusing to be limited in the division of property to a sum which might produce an income of $450.00 per month.