Court Opinion

ID: 9760900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:22:11.305585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:18.374222
License: Public Domain

WINTERSHEIMER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because the Court of Appeals properly decided this case finding that the denial of maintenance by the trial judge was an abuse of discretion.
The husband is an administrative vice-president of Ashland Oil, Inc. and earns a gross salary of $150,478.12. His annual bonuses, which are not guaranteed, total an additional $62,000 for years 1985-1988. It was stipulated that the wife, a 57 year-old homemaker who cared for the couple’s now-adult four children, is unable to obtain any employment. She was awarded the family home at a value of $200,000 and liquid assets with an after-tax value of $533,000. Her reasonable needs were agreed to be $46,000 per year. The trial court concluded that the wife could earn 9 percent a year on her investment property and did not award maintenance. The 9 *828percent figure would yield approximately $47,000 per year.
The Court of Appeals reversed on two grounds. First, it found it very unlikely that the wife could earn 9 percent interest on her investments without subjecting them to moderate risk. The Court of Appeals also determined that she should not be forced to jeopardize her only source of income to earn 9 percent interest considering that she is unemployable. Second, the Court of Appeals determined that the trial judge’s calculations required the wife to liquidate her Ashland Oil accounts, deferred compensation and retirement with severe tax consequences of 32 percent of their value. Keeping the accounts until the husband’s retirement in 1993 and making gradual withdrawals thereafter would substantially reduce the tax consequences. Stressing that the wife is permitted to continue the standard of living established during the marriage, Casper v. Casper, Ky., 510 S.W.2d 253 (1974), expressing concern that the wife should not be forced to deplete her assets, and observing that the wife has a life expectancy of 24.7 years, the Court of Appeals stated that it would not require that she liquidate the Ashland accounts because such an action would be financially ill-advised and then base a denial of maintenance on such a requirement. The trial judge was directed upon remand to award maintenance until the husband’s retirement in February 1993.
It should be noted that the husband did not contest the amount of the reasonable needs of the wife nor the fact that she is unemployable. In view of the fact that her reasonable needs cannot be met without either an award of maintenance or premature liquidation of her Ashland accounts with the resulting adverse tax consequence, I believe the Court of Appeals properly decided this case.
Clearly, the wife has an obligation to maintain income-producing investments, but the court cannot mandate the return she must obtain. Atwood v. Atwood, Ky.App., 643 S.W.2d 263 (1982). Economic conditions now indicate that safe investments earn considerably less chan 9 percent.
Certainly the marital assets awarded the wife are substantial. However, we must observe that the wife has no earning capacity and is admittedly unemployable. There is no evidence of any opportunity to build on the marital assets and her only alternative would be to invade the principal. She should not be required to liquidate the Ash-land accounts.
Under all the circumstances, the Court of Appeals was correct in determining that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to award any maintenance.