Opinion ID: 884138
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Award of the net sale proceeds of the family home to Mayla

Text: David maintains that the District Court erred when it awarded the net sale proceeds of the family home to Mayla and did not recognize his contributions to the financing of the home. He contends that the District Court should have credited him with $11,800 of the purchase price as funds traceable to a trust fund owned by David prior to the marriage. David also argues that the District Court should have credited him for the $4,200 he spent on repairs to the home before it was sold. In In re Marriage of Eklund (1989), 236 Mont. 77, 768 P.2d 340, we held that a portion of the marital estate may be set aside if it is traceable to one party or the other. Whether it is traceable depends on the adequacy of the evidence presented in the case. Premarital property is considered commingled with the marital estate when there is no attempt during the marriage to segregate the property. See In re Marriage of Danelson (1992), 253 Mont. 310, 318, 833 P.2d 215, 220. In Eklund, the husband's parents loaned him $60,000 to buy a house. A promissory note named only the husband as the obligor and named both of his parents as payees. The parties had been married for four years when the husband filed for dissolution. At trial, the parents testified that their donative intent was to make a gift solely to the husband. Pursuant to the tax planning advice the parents received, they both intended to make a separate $10,000 gift to their son each year, as they had done with each of their other children. Eklund, 236 Mont. at 79, 768 P.2d at 342. The facts in Eklund present a clear case of funds which are traceable to one party. The situation in this case is very different. David's trust fund money was property which he brought into the marriage in 1971 and used to help finance the family home. Neither David nor Mayla testified that David intended to keep those funds separate from the marital estate. David and Mayla's marriage lasted for twenty-four years, as opposed to the four-year marriage in Eklund. Based on this evidence, we conclude that there was no evidence that David made any effort to segregate his contribution to the parties' home; it has now been commingled with the marital estate; and the District Court's award of the entire value of the family home to Mayla was not an abuse of discretion. David also contends that the District Court erred when it did not give him credit for the $4,200 he spent preparing the family home for sale after Mayla moved out. The District Court considered David's contention but found that his $4,200 was offset by the property he removed from the house and the fact that he failed to pay some of the house payments as previously ordered by the court. Based on these facts, we again conclude that the District Court did not abuse its discretion. We therefore affirm the District Court's award of the net proceeds of the sale of the family home to Mayla.