Court Opinion

ID: 9578847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:49:07.494878+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:46.674229
License: Public Domain

MATTHEWS, Justice,
dissenting in part.
My disagreement with today’s opinion concerns only the trial court’s failure to order that Jim be reimbursed for making the mortgage payments on the marital home after the decree. The court holds that such payments are best characterized as spousal support; that the trial court implicitly treated them as such, as it found them to be “both just and necessary”; and that the trial court’s determination that they were just and necessary was not error. Op. at 913.
I believe that if the post-decree mortgage payments are not to be reimbursed they are justifiable, if at all, only as spousal support. Spousal support is only proper where it is found to be both “just and necessary.” AS 25.24.160(a)(2). The trial court’s “just and necessary” finding does not address the possibility of reimbursing Jim for the mortgage payments he makes after the date of the decree. The payments are $3,970 each month. It would be an easy matter to order reimbursement of these payments from the house sale proceeds before dividing the proceeds. In my view, the trial court should specifically address why it is “just and necessary” that this not be done.
Further, roughly twenty-five percent of each monthly payment is principal. Failing to reimburse Jim for principal payments is error as a matter of law, as each principal payment increases net sale proceeds dollar for dollar. Ordering reimbursement of principal merely restores the status quo as of the time of the decree.
The court’s response to this is that since the payments are just and necessary spousal support, reimbursement is not required. Op. 913 n. 18. This assumes as a given the question that must be answered, which is whether it is just and necessary that the payments not be reimbursed. As to principal, at least, the answer to this question is *916clearly “no” because there is no need to give Robin sale proceeds which have been increased by Jim’s principal payments. Failing to reimburse Jim for his principal payments does just that.1

. In the decree, the court assumed "a worst case sale” which would result in net proceeds of $384,000. These would be divided by awarding $250,000 to Robin and $134,000 to Jim. Any amount in excess of $384,000 would be divided evenly between the parties. If Jim pays the mortgage down by $20,000 and thus increases the net proceeds by $20,000, Robin would be awarded $260,000 and Jim would be awarded $144,000. Robin’s net recovery would therefore be increased by $ 10,000 solely due to Jim's principal payments. This result is $10,000 more than is just from Robin’s standpoint, and $10,000 less than is just from Jim’s standpoint, given that the decree is fair and just. It is not necessary because reimbursement from the sale proceeds could be ordered.