Court Opinion

ID: 9592840
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:17:20.650049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:32.238924
License: Public Domain

Shepherd, P.J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part). I agree with the majority in every respect except its ruling on the noncontributory pension plan. I believe it is a marital asset and should have been distributed in some manner. In Hatcher v Hatcher, 129 Mich App 753; 343 NW2d 498 (1983), we held that the only basis for not considering a noncontributory pension plan as a marital asset would be the case where the employer could unilaterally terminate it. As long as funds are in the plan, it is no more difficult to distribute than the contributory plan. In Hatcher, the trial court held a distribution of the pension in abeyance until the husband received it and we affirmed. That is not the only possible solution but I believe that if the court can, as it did here, distribute the contributory plan, for which no value was proved, it can likewise fashion an appropriate remedy for the noncontributory plan.
The majority remands for a hearing to determine whether the husband complied with the order to give the wife one-half of the unspecified value of the contributory plan. That will necessarily involve proof of the value of that plan. I fail to see why we allow proof of the value of one plan on remand and not the other.
In recent years there have been several cases, including Hatcher, Boyd v Boyd, 116 Mich App 774; 323 NW2d 553 (1982), and Perry v Perry, 133 *561Mich App 453; 350 NW2d 275 (1984), that demonstrate the evolution of the doctrine that pensions are a marital asset, albeit one that may be difficult to value. An asset without a presently ascertainable value is, nevertheless, an asset.
In the case of real estate where no value is proved, trial courts have no problem ordering the asset held in joint names until it is sold. In Hatcher, the same trial judge who presided in the instant case ordered the noncontributory pension plan held in abeyance until it became a liquid asset. I would, on remand, order the trial judge to fashion a Hatcher-type remedy or any other appropriate remedy that would be equitable. If his award of $100 per month alimony was designed to be a substitute for an award of a portion of the value of the noncontributory pension plan, a record to that effect should be made. This proposition was argued on appeal, but the record does not substantiate it.