Court Opinion

ID: 9685764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:01:16.670146+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:09.775472
License: Public Domain

*879HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
Ex-husband’s chief point on appeal is this: Judge, you gave her all of the income property (from whence the debt could be paid) but you require me to pay one-half indebtedness of the income property. Per the ex-wife’s brief, he is unemployed. However, other evidence would show that he earns a meager wage, at this time, as a maintenance man. There is no way possible for him to pay approximately $30,000 in debt, which he has been ordered to pay, on the wages of a maintenance man. It is the income property which should pay off the debt and not maintenance man wages.
It is true that during this marriage, several businesses, in the free enterprise system, were attempted and fell by the way but each and every business resulted through a joint decision. Why, then, must he bear the brunt and the blame of all business failure? The trial court is punishing him for joint decisions. Moreover, and most importantly, the trial court and the Supreme Court have, as a base for the decision of this case, made this determination: That somehow, someway, the ex-wife should be placed back to the status quo from whence the marriage began. All considerations seem to be, let us look at what the wife had when she came into the marriage, and now make her whole by virtue of the Decree of Divorce. This is a “let’s turn back the clock” philosophy in deciding divorce cases. Its base is the past and not the present. The trial court must adjudicate based upon what he has before him and not solely what the parties had when they came into the marriage. My point is: This Court has, on numerous occasions, set forth the principal factors to be considered by a trial court in making an equitable property division; yet, here, the entire decision is vented and directed and hinged on what property the ex-wife had when she came into the marriage. Explained another way: Only one factor seems to be considered, i.e., “the contribution of each party to the accumulation of the property.”
Now, let us consider that last phrase. Are we meditating about the contribution during the marriage or the property brought into the marriage?
Under the decision of this Court, which affirms the trial court, ex-wife is given 100% of the personal property acquired during the course of the marriage. There was no real property acquired during the marriage; ex-husband is awarded equity left on his property in the town of Clark, which, at most, is $8,000 and property in New York which, it is conceded, has no value whatsoever. Oh, yes, he is awarded a jackknife, a silver dollar which his father once owned, and his “lab” [sic] dog.
When it came to awarding the debts, however, the trial court opened up the package. The husband was awarded one-half of all outstanding indebtedness, which is applicable to both the real property and personal property that ex-wife is receiving.
True, wife had a grocery store when the parties married,* but through the fruits of this man’s labor, an “arcade” was built which thereafter became the “laundromat.” It grosses approximately $900 per month. Also, as the fruits of ex-husband’s labor, also attached to this grocery store, was a rather beautiful home or “apartment” that wife now lives in. She rents out her own home and receives $250 monthly. Therefore, this amounts to $1,150 per month gross income to her that she did not have before, all as a result of his labor. He receives nothing, absolutely nothing, for his labor. Again, to repeat, he is given one-half of all indebtedness. The theory, once more, upon which this Court and the trial court permits this inequity to be done is that ex-husband should be punished for participating, in a joint decision, on some businesses that failed and because she should be placed back into an economic position where she was (as close as it can be) when she entered the marriage. If one were to approach this decision from the thinking of the Supreme Court and the trial court, it could also be noted that he came *880into this marriage with certain assets and leaves with at least a $43,000 loss. However, the “status quo” concept, i.e., “let’s put the parties back where they started from” is not the proper manner in which to equitably distribute assets in a marriage. It is not the state of the law of the State of South Dakota and it is error. It is an abuse of discretion; therefore, I would reverse. Owen v. Owen, 351 N.W.2d 139, 141 (S.D.1984) (where we noted that “[t]he trial court’s discretion is ... very broad; it is not, however, uncontrolled. A property disposition must soundly and substantially be based upon testimony and evidence.”). See Ostwald v. Ostwald, 331 N.W.2d 64, 67 (S.D.1983); Hrdlicka v. Hrdlicka, 310 N.W.2d 160, 161 (S.D.1981). Ex-husband is manacled with a debt he cannot pay and ex-wife has the income property to liberate the debt.

 Ex-husband was given “for spending money” the magnanimous sum of $45 per week for working in the grocery store. This does not approach the salary of carryout boys in grocery stores.