Court Opinion

ID: 9549335
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:16:28.893168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:09.589003
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(dissenting):
I would adhere to our prior decision. I am in hearty agreement with the quote from the Englert case that the court should consider “all of the assets of every nature possessed by the parties whenever obtained and from whatever source derived and that this includes such pension fund or insurance”; and this should include anything that is realistic and substantial, even in expectancy. To demonstrate the complete illogic of plaintiff’s counsel’s argument that the court should not consider the pension fund because the plaintiff has never seen it or had possession or control over it: suppose it had been determined in a probate proceeding that the plaintiff was to receive a substantial inheritance from a relative’s estate, but it was not to be paid him until completion of the probate. Would it be argued that because he had never seen the money, nor had possession or control over it, the court could not consider it as a part of the total circumstances.
The trial judge was ineluctably correct in stating that he had considered all the circumstances, including the possibility that the plaintiff would receive the pension referred to.
There is a matter far more important and controlling than the foregoing, quite regardless of the statement the trial judge made, which has provided a basis for further controversy, and for this appeal. As indicated in our original opinion, when this Court surveys the circumstances of these parties, as it may do in such cases, it is my judgment that the decree does no such inequity or injustice as to warrant this Court’s interference therewith.
STEWART, J., concurs in the views expressed in the opinion of CROCKETT, C. J.