Opinion ID: 2020959
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: adequacy of the marital property division

Text: Both parties appeal the trial court's award of 30% of the marital property to Sandra. Roger argues that in view of the size of the award, which includes child support payments of $50 per week and $151,250 as the cash value of Sandra's share of the marital property exclusive of the McManus farm, he would be forced to sell his nonmarital assets, including whatever is left of his farmland, and be left without a means of earning a living. He points out that Sandra has an income of at least $5,000 per year plus unreported additional earnings, and cites section 503(c) of the Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 40, par. 503(c)) and In re Marriage of McCune (1980), 86 Ill. App.3d 311, 318, in support of his assertion that deprivation of livelihood is an important consideration in distributing marital property. Sandra argues that the award was not against the manifest weight of the evidence and suggests that it should have been increased to 50%, citing as authority In re Marriage of Aschwanden (1980), 82 Ill.2d 31, in which we ruled an award of 22% insufficient. We express no views as to the correctness of the distribution, other than to point out that in Aschwanden the husband's income and earning capacity were very much higher than the wife's. We believe that a decision on this issue would be premature until the circuit court rules on the disposition of the McManus farm, as we have directed it to do. We therefore instruct the circuit court of Mercer County to consider this issue as well on the remand. In view of the likelihood that the value of the Sackville and McManus farms has decreased since the original court order due to the general decline in farm prices which has taken place, we also instruct the court to make a current valuation of these farms as a basis for this determination.