Court Opinion

ID: 9570559
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:24:14.034474+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:11:40.659600
License: Public Domain

Justice Huskins
dissenting.
The evidence shows that defendant’s adjusted gross income in 1968 was $14,608.24 and in 1969 was $16,086.12. For the calendar year 1970 his adjusted gross income fell to $6,775.14. What is the explanation for this drastic reduction?
In March of 1970 defendant established a separate bedroom for himself and on 29 March 1971 completed the abandonment of his wife by moving out of the marital home and taking his personal effects with him.
Following the incorporation of his business on 1 May 1970, defendant placed himself on a weekly salary of $156.58. He now contends that sum represents his actual earnings and that any award of alimony to his wife must be based thereon, taking into account the separate earnings of his wife. On the other hand, plaintiff contends defendant has intentionally depressed his income to avoid his obligations to her and that the trial tribunal was justified in basing an award on defendant’s earning capacity rather than on the meager earnings he acknowledges.
*177No satisfactory explanation appears in the record for defendant’s drastic drop in income following the incorporation of his business. The majority blames the wife for having failed to utilize the discovery procedures provided in Rules 34 and 45(c) of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The majority says these discovery rules “would have allowed her to examine and produce at trial any pertinent corporate records supportive of her allegations. This, however, she did not do.” I view the matter differently.
In my view the evidence adduced by the plaintiff was sufficient to support a finding, nothing else appearing, that defendant had incorporated his business for the purpose of intentionally depressing his income to an artificial low and was hiding behind the corporate structure to avoid his financial responsibilities to his wife. If he desired to avoid such findings and an award based on his demonstrated earning capacity prior to incorporation, the onus was on him to come forward with his corporate records, tax returns, receipted bills, and other pertinent documentary evidence, and negate plaintiff’s prima facie showing. In light of the fact that all such records are in defendant’s possession, it is unrealistic, and I think contrary to law, to require plaintiff to pierce defendant’s corporate smoke screen by use of discovery procedures. If the records in his possession show what he says they show, it is no trouble for him to produce them in court. His failure to do so suggests rather strongly that plaintiff’s position is correct.
The majority decision permits defendant to abandon his wife with impunity and then requires her to ascertain, at her peril, his true earnings as revealed by his corporate records. I would let him conceal that truth at his peril.
For the reasons stated I respectfully dissent.
Chief Justice Sharp joins in this dissent.