Opinion ID: 2633386
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cabin site and buildings

Text: Because Gary acquired the cabin site before marrying Nancy, the property itself is not property acquired only during marriage. [9] Therefore, it can only be treated as marital property if it was transmuted into such property through the parties' intent and actions demonstrating that intent. [10] The trial court in this case found that Gary intended to treat the cabin site as a joint holding. When determining whether property is separate or marital, the trial court may not focus solely on the parties' acts and disregard their intentions. [11] We have identified standards for determining whether separate real property has been transmuted into marital property, including: (1) the use of property as the parties' personal residence; (2) the ongoing maintenance and management of the property by both parties; (3) placing title in joint ownership; and (4) using the credit of the non-titled owner to improve the property. [12] Here, the Greens used the premises as their personal residence. As we noted above, the trial court found that each of them pooled into [the joint economic] enterprise their time, talents, and any premarital assets that they had. It also found that [b]y the time of separation, the primary cabin on the Cabinsite was much larger and very different from what it had been before the marriage. Every stick, rock, log, nail, shelf, window was affected by one party or the other throughout the marital years. The Greens paid all expenses for upkeep and improvement of the land and buildings with proceeds from McCarthy Air, the family business. The trial court's determination that the cabin became part of the marital estate by virtue of marital effort and use was not clearly erroneous. Gary suggests on appeal that the trial court should not have considered the passive appreciation in the cabin site land as a marital asset. Because the trial court made no finding that the Greens treated the land differently than they did the cabin, it did not err by evaluating the cabin buildings and land as one unit.