Opinion ID: 1166304
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Social Security Payment

Text: Mrs. Hughes also claimed the trial court was in error in holding that social security payments were the separate property of Col. Hughes. After Col. Hughes returned from Viet Nam the Social Security Administration paid him the sum of $18,259.00, but the evidence is undisputed that $4,872.00 of this amount was indicated by that federal agency as being due to Mrs. Hughes. The testimony by an official of the Social Security Administration was that the amount was included in the Col. Hughes check for convenience only. Col. Hughes contends that all of the social security money was his separate property because it was paid for physical disability or was a bonus or gift from the government as an award for the hardships endured by him while a prisoner of war. Mrs. Hughes alleges that all of the money was community property, or, in the alternative, at least the $4872.00 which the government recognized as being payable to her should be considered to be her separate property. The trial court found that the entire amount of the social security payment was the separate property of Col. Hughes. We find no fault with the trial court's conclusion insofar as it would apply to $13,387.00 that the federal agency determined was payable to Col. Hughes, but we find no support in the facts or the law for the trial court's conclusion that the $4872.00 determined to be owing to Mrs. Hughes was the separate property of Col. Hughes. The record in this case graphically discloses that Col. Hughes suffered hardships as a prisoner, but he was not alone in this regard. The hardships of the prisoner's wife are not to be ignored; and it is rather obvious that the United States government was not oblivious of this consideration. If the husband is to receive an award for enduring hardships as a prisoner of war, it seems only fitting that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and vice versa, with the wife being entitled here to rely on the same argument employed by the husband. We hold that the trial court was in error on the finding and the legal conclusion and that the $4872.00 is the separate property of Mrs. Hughes.