Court Opinion

ID: 9659103
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:32:21.583872+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:03.988298
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(dissenting).
Floyd and Suzanne were married in 1963. Floyd had some money. Suzanne did not. They had five children despite a troubled marriage and frequent separations. Now, almost 30 years later, they are divorced and Suzanne is awarded 25.4 percent of the “marital estate.” This amounts to only $20,691 in contrast to Floyd’s division of the “marital estate” of $60,891.
To make matters worse, Floyd receives the land (520 acres) now and is permitted to pay Suzanne later. In fact, he may pay over a period of seven years without any interest whatsoever. This reduces the real value of her award even further. Lien v. Lien, 278 N.W.2d 436, 444 (S.D.1979).
To make matters even worse, the trial court determined that an even greater amount of property (565 acres) owned by Floyd before the marriage was “non-marital” property. Suzanne receives none of it. The net effect of this determination is to reduce Suzanne’s award to about 10 percent of the total property owned by the parties. In a recent and somewhat similar case, Johnson v. Johnson, 471 N.W.2d 156 (S.D.1991), we unanimously reversed a trial court property award for wife where she received less than 20% of the property. The opinion by Justice Amundson noted *695that although “the trial court’s division of property is not bound by any mathematical formula,” “[t]he division of property appears to have minimized, if not totally disregarded, the relative earning capacity of the parties.” Id. at 160. In this case, the result is so unfair that it is like the trial court creating a pre-nuptial property agreement solely for Floyd’s benefit 30 years after the marriage. We should reverse and remand for a “fair” property distribution. SDCL 25-4-44.