Court Opinion

ID: 9676509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:25:57.192948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:49.024020
License: Public Domain

CROW, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the principal opinion, but I cannot endorse its statement that the custody of any children involved, whether by this marriage or a previous one, is a factor the court should consider in deciding which party should be awarded the marital home. No authority is cited for that proposition, and I find no Missouri case so holding.
In my view, it is unnecessary to address that question in this case. If custody of a child by another marriage (or liaison) is indeed a factor to be considered in the disposition of the family home in a dissolution proceeding, both parties in the instant case stood on equal footing. At time of trial, appellant had custody of two children bom to her as a result of a marriage to another man, and respondent had custody — actual if not “legal” — of two children bom to him as a result of a marriage to another woman. Consequently, if those circumstances were proper items for the trial court’s consideration, neither party occupied a favored position, thus such circumstances could have had little, if any, effect on the decision regarding the marital home.
The other factors set forth in the principal opinion supply ample support for the trial court’s decision to award the home, along with the indebtedness encumbering it, to respondent, particularly inasmuch as appellant concedes, in her brief, that the value of the home does not exceed the amount of the lien.
Therefore, I would not decide, in this case, whether a party’s custody of children of another marriage is a factor to be considered in determining the disposition of the family home in a dissolution proceeding. Resolution of that issue should await a case in which a decision on it is essential to the adjudication of the appeal.