Court Opinion

ID: 9709361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:45:56.636554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:48.091829
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HARRISON, dissenting: Mr. Talty should not be granted a new trial regarding division of the marital estate. Section 503(d) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 40, par. 503(d)) requires the trial court to divide marital property in "just proportions.” The trial court has broad discretion in determining what apportionment is equitable under this standard, and its judgment will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion. An abuse of discretion will be found only when no reasonable person could take the view adopted by the trial court. (See In re Marriage of Morris (1994), 266 Ill. App. 3d 277, 281.) This is not such a case. In assailing the trial court’s judgment, Mr. Talty relies on certain comments made by the circuit judge when explaining his decision. According to Talty, the judge’s comments indicate that he may have considered the element of goodwill twice, resulting in an erroneous overvaluation of Talty’s automobile dealership. Such a claim is manifestly incorrect. The trial court’s valuation of the business was based on the testimony of the parties’ expert witnesses. That testimony did include an amount for goodwill, but there was no duplication in the expert’s calculations, and the trial court added nothing to the experts’ figures. The remarks cited by Talty pertain to distribution of the marital assets, not their valuation. Rather than establishing error, those remarks indicate that the trial judge understood the relevant statutory factors and applied them correctly. In any case, it is the trial court’s ultimate conclusion and not his rationale that is dis-positive. A trial judge’s explanation for his decision is not what determines whether a judgment should be set aside on review. A reviewing court is not bound to accept the reasons given by the trial court for its judgment. (People ex rel. Waller v. 1990 Ford Bronco (1994), 158 Ill. 2d 460, 463.) To the contrary, the reasons given by a trial judge for an order, or the findings on which an order is based, are not material if the order is correct. (See Board of Managers of Dominion Plaza One Condominium Association No. 1-A v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. (1983), 116 Ill. App. 3d 690, 694.) If there is any basis in the record to support the judgment of the trial judge sitting without a jury, that judgment should be affirmed. See Cronin v. McCarthy (1994), 264 Ill. App. 3d 514, 523-24. The majority opinion outlines the financial circumstances of the parties at the time of trial. As its discussion shows, the marital estate was worth approximately $2 million. Talty had a partnership interest in a major farming operation and retained ownership of a car dealership that promised to make him richer than he already was. By contrast, after more than 30 years of marriage, Helen was left with a condominium apartment, a modest job that barely paid a living wage, no prospects, and no maintenance. Based on this record, there is abundant support for an award of $750,000 to Helen after taking into account the factors enumerated in section 503(d) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (111. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 40, par. 503(d)). To send the case back for further consideration based on Talty’s claim that he was, in effect, overcharged, defies understanding. The circuit court did not abuse its discretion, and its judgment should be affirmed. In reaching a contrary conclusion, the majority relies on In re Marriage of Zells (1991), 143 Ill. 2d 251, but that case is inapposite. In Zells, our court correctly recognized that the goodwill value of a law practice cannot be considered both as a marital asset subject to division and as an aspect of income potential for the purposes of establishing maintenance and support awards. Because goodwill is nothing more than the ability to acquire future income, taking it into account for both purposes would result in an improper duplication of the same factor in both calculations. A spouse would receive a greater amount of assets as well as a larger award of maintenance, when she should receive only one or the other. To eliminate the possibility of such overpayments in the context of professional businesses, this court did not prohibit the consideration of goodwill. In Zells, 143 Ill. 2d 251, it merely specified that the element of goodwill should be reflected in the maintenance and support awards, rather than in valuation of the marital assets subject to division. The situation before us here is distinguishable. Talty owned a car dealership, not a professional business. Unlike a legal or medical practice, the goodwill of a dealership is not solely dependant on the owner’s professional skills. Dealerships, as most corporate commercial enterprises, exist independently of their owners and continue to function as new owners come and go. Except in exceptional circumstances, which the record does not show to exist here, the goodwill will be attributable to the enterprise, not the personality who happens to own it. The goodwill is therefore properly included in the value of the enterprise when determining how marital assets should be distributed. A second, and more fundamental distinction from Zells, 143 Ill. 2d 251, is that in this case there was no possibility of a duplicate enhancement of the property distribution and maintenance awards. The reason is simple. Unlike Zells, there was no maintenance award. All Helen received was a property distribution. When only a distribution of marital assets is involved, valuation of the business is the only place where goodwill can be considered. The trial court therefore did not err when it refused to deduct that element from its appraisal of the dealership’s value. What really concerns my colleagues is an issue not involved in Zells at all, namely, how a trial judge should handle the interplay between the various factors enumerated in section 503(d) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 40, par. 503(d)) where, as here, an amount for goodwill is included in the value of the marital assets subject to division. The majority asserts that the value of goodwill must be subtracted from the value of the assets, at least to the extent that such goodwill is personal to Talty, because the elements that comprise the goodwill overlap some of the other considerations enumerated in section 503(d), such as the "amount and sources of income” of each of the parties (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 40, par. 503(d)(7)) and "the reasonable opportunity of each spouse for future acquisition of capital assets and income” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 40, par. 503(d)(10)). The flaw in the majority’s argument is that it fails to see that there is always going to be overlap between the value of a couple’s assets and these other factors, whether the asset value is derived from goodwill or not. Whatever the type of assets a couple may have, be it real estate holdings, bank accounts, shares of stock, or something else, and by whatever means those assets may have appreciated, their value will aifect the couple’s income and opportunity for future income and acquisition of additional capital. This is so whether the value comes from professional skill, hard labor, business acumen, or dumb luck in the lottery. The more resources a person has, the more he is likely to be able to acquire. The fewer assets he has, the less promising his financial prospects. These are not profound insights. They are simple truisms which the General Assembly was trying to express when it established the guidelines for the disposition of marital property under section 503(d). The guidelines reflect economic reality and were designed to give trial courts broad discretion in fashioning arrangements that deal with that reality in an equitable fashion. There is nothing unfair or unjust in this. To the contrary, the General Assembly’s approach is as reasonable as it is practical. The construction placed on the law by the majority today is neither. In my view, it draws distinctions that are meaningless and that will be impossible for the circuit courts to apply. I therefore dissent. JUSTICE McMORROW joins in this dissent.