Court Opinion

ID: 9688975
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:15:06.466902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:43.348049
License: Public Domain

*272CRIPPEN, Judge,
dissenting.
In the course of a description of marital assets already divided by the parties, the trial court found respondent had received (and “consumed”) marital property of $4000 by using money that had been on deposit in a Home Federal Savings and Loan Association account. In the words of the court, the account contained “$4,000.00 of marital property and therefore Respondent is held to have consumed $4,000.00 worth of marital assets.”
The court made a further finding to deal with additional sums that had once been on deposit in the account. The court found:
The rest and remainder of said account contained income which has been disposed of for living expenses.
Thus, the court resolved conflicting evidence about the source of deposits into the account and the disposition of respondent’s withdrawals from it.
Contesting these findings of the trial court, appellant has argued the Home Federal account “held more than $4,000.00 of marital property” and “contained $31,-271.08 of marital property.” What does this argument mean? What is the issue?
In parts of her argument, appellant suggests the trial court failed to recognize that all of the account had been marital property. Thus, the majority correctly observes that earned income may become marital property. However, this argument of appellant misstates the issue of the case. The trial court said only part of the account was marital property and the rest was income used for living expenses. The court was not engaged in finding whether or not property was marital. Instead, the court was addressing respondent’s claim that he had needed and used most of the account proceeds for living expenses.
Read in its entirety, appellant’s argument is on track; appellant claims respondent did not use the account withdrawals for living expenses, but that he improperly depleted marital funds. Alternatively, if the money was used to meet necessary expenses, appellant argues respondent should be faulted for not doing what he could to earn enough money to meet his needs. See Jungbauer v. Jungbauer, 391 N.W.2d 56, 58 (Minn.Ct.App.1986).
The payment of living expenses does not constitute a dissipation of marital assets to be treated as a distribution of marital property to the payor. Griepp v. Griepp, 381 N.W.2d 865, 869 (Minn.Ct.App.1986). As to all but $4000 once on deposit in the Home Federal account, the trial court found that it had been “disposed of for living expenses of Respondent.” This finding is supported by competent evidence. Respondent testified the money was spent for food, mortgage costs, real estate taxes, rent, income taxes, job costs, child support, attorney fees, and court costs. Respondent also testified that these funds were his only means of support at the time.
We are not to set aside the trial court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. Minn.R.Civ.P. 52.01. There was no clear error in the trial court’s findings that respondent withdrew most of the money deposited in the Home Federal account and spent it for current needs. A decision to reverse, stemming from a misstatement of the real issue in the case, inadvertently but clearly substitutes our judgment for the trial court’s finding on a question of fact. The substitution of a fact finding is particularly harmful and unjustified when made regarding a single item of property and without regard for the full scope of issues resolved by the trial court in deciding upon a fair and equitable division of the property of the parties.
The decision to reverse is introduced with a refutation of the trial court’s post-trial observation that the dispute on the account had been fully litigated at trial and “was part of the parties’ oral stipulation at onset of the trial which was affirmed by each party on the record.” To dispute the statement of the trial court, we must interpret it, wrongfully I think, to state a claim that the issue had been resolved according to an agreement of the parties. If this were the claim of the trial court, it would not have noted that the matter had been fully litigated. The reference to the stipulation merely *273suggests that it was evident throughout the course of the trial that the account was in dispute and that the account once contained approximately $31,000.
Because the law of the case compels us to affirm, I respectfully dissent.