Court Opinion

ID: 9735921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:36:56.289832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:02.878002
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
dissenting and concurring.
For the second time, the trial court’s division of a substantial accumulation of marital property between these spouses to end 28 years of marriage is under appellate review. This time an equal division is rejected because of a supposed conflict with earlier findings of the trial court. But, I would affirm inasmuch as an equal division of property is surely equitable when the Ruff-Fischer guidelines “favor neither party,” as we determined in our first review.
Initially, the trial court divided marital assets valued at $834,800, by awarding Ale-ta $199,700 in property and cash, as well as $1,000 per month for ten years with a present value of $58,400, for a total of $258,000 (31%). Pius received the remaining $576,000 (69%).
In our first decision, on Aleta’s appeal, Volk v. Volk, 376 N.W.2d 16 (N.D.1985), this court determined that “most of the [.Ruff-Fischer ] guidelines would seem to favor neither party,” did not identify any factors that favored one party over another, and concluded that the trial court’s findings did “not support the disparity in the respective property awards_” We directed the trial court “to either make more specific findings of fact ... to justify this disparity or reexamine the distribution. ...” Justice Levine wrote separately, concurring that the record did “not support the disparity in the property awards,” but she would have instructed the trial court “to divide the property equally since a *501proper application of the Ruff-Fischer guidelines justifies no disparate treatment or property division.”
After remand, the trial court chose not to make further findings to try to justify a disparate division. Instead, the trial court reexamined the distribution and determined that “a fair and equitable division of the marital property ... is that each party take one-half thereof along with one-half of any indebtedness existing against said property. ...”
Pius contends that this equal division is not equitable. He argues that the findings and judgment conflict, that the trial court did not follow the mandate of our first decision, and that the unseparated division in common was erroneous.
Where application of Ruff-Fischer guidelines does not favor either party, equal division of marital property upon dissolution of a longstanding marriage is surely equitable. In concluding that neither party was “favored” by the Ruff-Fischer guidelines in our prior decision, we summarized those factors as applied to this case:
“... [Tjhere is no great difference in the ages of the parties, their earning abilities, their station in life, the circumstances and necessities of each, their health and physical condition or their financial circumstances. It is undisputed that neither party brought any significant property into the marriage and that neither has inherited any of the property which they now own. While it is true that Pius has received $570 per month disability compensation since the Korean Conflict, there is no indication in the findings of fact that this was a factor in the trial court’s decision. The marriage is one of long duration, i.e., twenty-eight years. It appears that the trial court’s rationale is based primarily on the conduct of the parties during the marriage in that it found ‘nearly all of the property acquired during the marriage came as a result of Pius’s work effort’.
“This rather general finding combined with the evidence in the record of Aleta’s contributions both at home and outside of the home lead us to the conclusion that the findings of fact submitted for our review do not support the disparity in the respective property awards in this case.” 376 N.W.2d at 18.
We recently emphasized in Anderson v. Anderson, 390 N.W.2d 554, 556 (N.D.1986), that “[wjhile a property division need not be equal in order to be equitable, any substantial inequality must be explainable.” No adequate explanation for inequality has been advanced in this case, where the Ruff-Fischer guidelines favor neither party.
Pius argues that there is “obvious conflict” between the initial findings of fact and the current judgment of equal division of the marital property. He does not specifically identify the “obvious conflict,” and I see none. In our first decision, we pointed out that the general finding that “nearly all of the property ... [was] a result of Pius’s work effort” did not support a disparate award in view of Aleta’s contributions both as a homemaker and as a full-time wage earner outside of the home for all but two early years of the marriage. Nothing has been added to the record on this second appeal to create a different view of the evidence.
The lack of further findings by the trial court spelling out how Ruff-Fischer factors lead to equal division is hardly significant, where the analysis in our first opinion demonstrated that Ruff-Fischer factors do not favor either party. As this court reiterated in Routledge v. Routledge, 377 N.W.2d 542 (N.D.1985) at 545, footnote 1:
“The trial court did not specifically refer to the Ruff-Fischer guidelines in its findings of fact. There is no rule, however, that requires that the Ruff-Fischer factors be specifically enumerated. [Citation omitted.] We will not set aside the trial court’s determinations on property division or spousal support for failure to explicitly state the basis for its findings if that basis is reasonably discernible by deduction or inference. [Citations omitted.]”
Pius complains that the trial court followed Justice Levine’s direction, rather than the mandate of the majority opinion. It is true that the result on remand is the *502one recommended by Justice Levine in her separate opinion. But, the majority opinion did not specify a result on remand. Instead, the trial judge was given a range of alternatives: make further findings or reexamine the distribution. In my view, the trial court permissibly chose to reexamine the distribution, rather than to grope for findings that might support a disparate division.
Therefore, I dissent from the remand insofar as it dictates “an equitable property distribution” that is so far from equal, based upon a new and novel assessment of the evidence, unsupported by findings of fact, about which spouse contributed the greater economic effort to the marriage.
I concur with the majority opinion that, on remand, the trial court should partition and distribute separate property to each spouse. Of course, as in every divorce proceeding, the trial court has available to it the full set of remedial tools of partition proceedings. See Ch. 32-16, N.D.C.C., and 24 Am.Jur.2d, Divorce and Separation, § 931 (1983). Arithmetic exactness is not required, but substantial compliance with the formula of division should be sought.
LEVINE, J., concurs.