Opinion ID: 884792
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Workers' Compensation Bill

Text: ¶12 On appeal, George argues the District Court made several errors in valuing the marital estate, the first of which George asserts was the court's decision to exclude from its valuation a $1,000,000 liability owed to the State Compensation Insurance Fund. In its findings of fact, the court noted that the State Compensation Insurance Fund had billed George and Berg Lumber Company for $1,043,954, based upon audit premiums for the period of time from June 20, 1991 through August 27, 1994. The court determined the liability was merely a contingent one, however, and ultimately chose to exclude the liability from its valuation of the marital estate. The court observed that the amount owing is disputed by George and no doubt will become the subject of litigation, and noted that final resolution of the billing was unknown at the time of trial. In its order denying George's motion for a new trial, the court additionally explained that absolutely no evidence was provided to the Court relating to that particular lien and its enforceability. Rather, George simply requested the Court to assume it was valid in full and grant him an extra million dollars in assets to offset the lien. At trial, not only was there no evidence as to the enforceability of the lien, there was equally a complete absence of evidence relating to any file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/cu1046/Desktop/opinions/97-392%20Opinion.htm (4 of 12)4/20/2007 2:53:31 PM Marriage of Berg efforts made by George to determine its validity prior to trial. ¶13 George argues the court erred in determining the liability is contingent, noting that the bill is still outstanding and that, as of yet, there is no evidence to establish that the bill is in error. Having reviewed the record, however, we conclude the District Court's determination that the liability was merely a contingent one at the time of trial was not clearly erroneous. Accordingly, we conclude the court did not err in excluding that contingent liability from its valuation of the marital estate. ¶14 We additionally note that, faced with distributing a gross marital estate worth in excess of $4,000,000, the court awarded Pia roughly $1,124,425 in assets and liabilities. The court thus left the bulk of the marital estate to George in the form of the Berg Lumber Company. As the court observed, George was in complete control of the sawmill operation during [the] period of time upon which the workers' compensation bill was based. We conclude that for the court to determine that, because George will receive nearly all of the assets he would in turn be responsible for nearly all of the liabilities, including the contingent liability owed to the State Compensation Insurance Fund, was not an abuse of discretion, particularly in light of the fact that he was in complete control of the sawmill operation during the period of time upon which the bill was based.