Court Opinion

ID: 9775792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:09:09.11234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:31.022534
License: Public Domain

REINHARD, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority has too narrowly interpreted § 452.335.2, RSMo.1978, and the cases on limitation of maintenance in dissolution decrees. Our standard of review is established in Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30, 32 (Mo. banc 1976). We are not to substitute our judgment for that of the trial court.
*615In considering the duration of maintenance, the trial court is statutorily admonished to consider seven relevant factors. However, these factors are not exclusive. § 452.335.2, RSMo.1978. There is no indication in the record that the court ignored the mandate of the statute. The majority apparently reverses because the award of limited maintenance was related to the youngest child’s eighteenth birthday rather than to “evidence supporting a finding that four years was the time needed to permit appellant wife to acquire any particular education or training to enable her to become self-supporting. Only the latter type of proof would suffice under § 452.335.2(2), RSMo.1978. No such evidence was offered.” I disagree with the majority’s holding as to the requirements to support an award of limited maintenance.
The principal case by the Missouri Supreme Court on the issue of limitation of maintenance is Doerflinger v. Doerflinger, 646 S.W.2d 798 (Mo. banc 1983). Judge Billings, writing for the court, quoted our case of Sansone v. Sansone, 615 S.W.2d 670, 671 (Mo.App.1981): “[Ajlthough Powers [In re Marriage of Powers, 527 S.W.2d 949 (Mo.App.1975) ] states that a maintenance award of limited duration should not be based upon speculation, we do not believe this means husband must wait to request modification until it is a certainty that wife will be employed.” 646 S.W.2d at 802. Evidence in the present case revealed that even though the wife did not have a college education, she did have secretarial skills and had worked full-time during the first five years of the marriage. As recently as approximately two years before the dissolution hearing, she had worked as a part-time bookkeeper. According to her testimony, the reason she was not seeking employment was because she had school children at home. As she stated at trial, “I just feel that ... if I’m not there, then maybe they wouldn’t be in their room doing homework....” Accordingly, the court terminated maintenance concurrent with the youngest child’s graduation from high school at age eighteen.
The dissolution decree not only granted a substantial amount of support for the children; it also provided that the minor children of the marriage receive a four year undergraduate education at the expense of the husband. Thus, the wife will not be responsible for the children’s support after they leave her home. She is skilled and experienced at secretarial work, which is one of the more valuable and important tasks in society. One needs only to look at the want ad pages of a Sunday newspaper to see that there is a great demand for secretaries. Furthermore, under the trial court’s limitation of maintenance, the wife would have four year’s notice that her maintenance would end, and there is no reason that she cannot seek further education or training within that time.
Although the evidence is debatable as to whether the court should have limited maintenance, I believe there was evidence to support such a limitation. As stated above, we are not to substitute our judgment for that of the trial court’s; the evidence here provides a rational basis for the trial court’s limitation, and accordingly, I would affirm.