Court Opinion

ID: 9629198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:39:02.578279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:03.039017
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice,
dissenting.
I am obliged to dissent because in my judgment the majority opinion adopts the least desirable of the policy alternatives posed by various competing social issues; ignores the previous decisions of this Court; and leaves the parties, particularly plaintiff-appellant ex-wife, in the worst of all possible worlds.
Although the majority opinion presents only a most truncated version of the facts, the record demonstrates that if financial exigencies might require the rule of the majority in some cases it is certainly not required, necessary, nor desirable in the instant cause.
The trial court in a carefully drafted memorandum opinion, findings of fact, conclusions of law and judgment meticulously set forth the financial facts and status of the parties. Of these findings there is no complaint. In monies and personal property the court divided approximately $33,000. In addition the community owned real property and it is not controverted that it was valued between $50,000 to $55,000 with an encumbrance of approximately $12,000. The court ordered that the real property be sold and the proceeds divided amongst the parties. Again, no one complains.
Although the majority opinion would have us believe that the calculation of the value of retirement benefits is not susceptible to “a reasonably accurate calculation,” the record reveals counsel for plaintiff-appellant presented expert testimony indicating such values. Such values were calculated alternatively on a six percent, seven percent and eight percent discount factor and indicated values of approximately $60,-000, $55,000 and $50,000 respectively. According to that expert witness his calculation was based on a 25 year in-service time as required by the statute. That evidence was rejected by the trial court solely on the basis that the correct method of establishing the value of the retirement benefits was the cash value at the time of the divorce. No objection was made or sustained as to the competency of the tendered evidence. Following the trial court’s rejection of the proffered testimony and documentary evidence, an offer of proof was made to preserve plaintiff-appellant’s record on appeal.
In Ramsey v. Ramsey, 96 Idaho 672, 535 P.2d 53 (1975) this Court held that retirement benefits must be considered community property and that “each spouse should have immediate control of his or her share of the community property, or at least within a reasonable time.” See also Largilliere v. Largilliere, 50 Idaho 496, 298 P. 362 (1931); Larson v. Larson, 95 Idaho 376, 509 P.2d 1297 (1973). In my judgment (and aside from the fact that Ramsey involved a military retirement) the facts and the rationale of the Ramsey decision are indistinguishable from the case at bar.
The Court in Ramsey held the wife to be entitled to a lump sum award of her community property interest in the husband’s future retirement benefits and ordered the trial court to determine “ * * * the then present value of the defendant’s retirement pay based on his life expectancy at that time. In computation of the present value, the trial court shall use the discount rate of 6% per annum for the purpose of arriving at the discounted value of such retirement pay. Thereafter, the trial court shall compute the value of the plaintiff’s interest in this retirement pay and enter judgment accordingly.”
I would add that the majority holding in Ramsey was over and notwithstanding the vigorous dissent of the author of today’s majority opinion. I find myself no more able to agree with his reasoning today than at the time of Ramsey.
*441In Phillips v. Phillips, 93 Idaho 384, 462 P.2d 49 (1969) a unanimous Court stated:
“When two people are divorced from each other, as we have said herein, there are certain obligations incumbent upon our courts. The first and most important thereof is to make provision for the custody, support and maintenance of the minor children, if any, of the parties. Thereafter the court should arrive at an equitable distribution of the community property accumulated by the parties in consideration of all the circumstances. Thereafter the parties should go their own way with a dissolution of all obligation and debts to each other. Unfortunately, ideal situations do not always exist and the situation must be modified according to the wisdom and discretion of the trial judge.” (Emphasis added.) Id. at 388, 462 P.2d at 53.
In my judgment those words are no less correct than they were at the time of Phillips. When a marital relationship is severed it should be severed finally and totally. There are a host of compelling reasons for such a rule. Perhaps the most compelling is that the plaintiff-appellant ex-wife here is entitled to her share of the community property at the dissolution of the divorce or as soon thereafter as the financial exigencies will permit. See Larson v. Larson, supra. She should not be required to await the pleasure of the defendant-respondent as to when and if he will retire. She should not be required to litigate with the entity having administration of the Firemen’s Retirement Fund or with a widow in the event (as the record seems to make likely) that defendant-respondent should remarry.
It would appear that there are three alternative solutions to the problem presented in the case at bar. One is the adoption of the rule utilized by the trial court that since there is speculation involved in determining value and a cash surrender value has at least the virtue of a tangible amount of money immediately available to the ex-spouse it should be so awarded. In contrast to its virtues that alternative has the vice of depriving a spouse of an equitable division of the community property.
The second alternative as suggested by plaintiff-appellant at trial has the virtue of a fair determination of the value of community property, a division as equitably determined by the trial court, and immediate possession. In the instant case I see no vice in the adoption of that scheme.
The third alternative is that suggested by the majority opinion which, in my judgment, has all of the vices and none of the virtues of the other alternatives.
I would reverse and remand for a lump sum award to the appellant of her community property interest in the respondent’s future retirement benefits calculated in conformance with Ramsey. Since respondent has had no opportunity or necessity to submit evidence in opposition to that phase of appellant’s case, he should be afforded the opportunity.