Court Opinion

ID: 9720404
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:29:22.158711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:17.479415
License: Public Domain

SCHUMACHER, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Classifying unpaid insurance premiums as maintenance obligations which cannot be retroactively forgiven is an unauthorized expansion of the statute. See Minn.Stat. § 518.64, subd. 2(c) (Supp.1991). The appropriate standard is whether the district court abused its discretion. For several reasons, I believe it did.
First, the $49,366 the trial court found due and owing to respondent is money which respondent would never have received even if appellant complied with the terms of the judgment and decree. The money would have been paid to the insurance company for premiums on a health insurance policy for respondent. Respondent secured her own health insurance coverage through her employer, and appellant should be responsible only for reimbursing her for what she is out-of-pocket, which amounted to $1712 total over a 10-year period. Awarding respondent more than she paid out-of-pocket for insurance premiums, a windfall of approximately $47,654, is not reasonable.
*452In addition, appellant’s equitable defenses should not be summarily dismissed. Respondent waited almost 10 years before bringing this issue before the court and then only in response to appellant’s motion to sell the homestead and divide the proceeds pursuant to the terms of the decree. The record reflects an agreement between the parties that respondent would pay her own insurance premiums in exchange for appellant’s quitclaiming his interest in the homestead to her. The exact terms of the agreement are in dispute. Appellant’s request for an evidentiary hearing on this issue was denied. The characterization of the insurance premiums as an unforgivable maintenance obligation distorts the issue and denies appellant a hearing. At the very least, I would remand this case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on this issue.