Jennifer Spivey v. Charles Spivey (mem. dec.) ( 2020 )

MEMORANDUM DECISION
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), FILED
this Memorandum Decision shall not be
regarded as precedent or cited before any Dec 16 2020, 9:50 am
court except for the purpose of establishing CLERK
Indiana Supreme Court
the defense of res judicata, collateral Court of Appeals
and Tax Court
estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE
Andrea L. Ciobanu Angela Field Trapp
Ciobanu Law, P.C. Trapp Law, LLC
Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Jennifer Spivey, December 16, 2020
Appellant-Petitioner, Court of Appeals Case No.
20A-DC-845
v. Appeal from the Marion Superior
Court
Charles Spivey, The Honorable David J. Dreyer,
Appellee-Respondent Judge
The Honorable Patrick Murphy,
Magistrate
Trial Court Cause No.
49D10-1707-DC-29037
Crone, Judge.
Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 20A-DC-845| December 16, 2020 Page 1 of 9
Case Summary
[1] Jennifer Spivey (Wife) petitioned to dissolve her marriage to Charles Spivey
(Husband). During the proceeding, Wife filed a petition to hold Husband in
contempt of a provisional order. After a factfinding hearing, the trial court
entered a dissolution decree in which it valued and divided marital assets but
did not rule on Wife’s contempt petition. On appeal, Wife argues that the trial
court erred in conflating Husband’s retirement account with the parties’
pensions and in failing to rule on her contempt petition. We agree with Wife
and therefore reverse and remand.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] Wife and Husband were married in 1984, and Wife petitioned to dissolve the
marriage in 2017. In October 2017, the parties entered into an agreed
provisional order that gave Wife “sole possession of the former marital
residence” and provided that, “[i]n the event of unexpected repairs, [Wife] must
immediately notify [Husband], so that they can negotiate the repair and/or hire
contractors to fix it.” Appellant’s App. Vol. 2 at 23. In March 2019, Wife filed
a filed a petition for contempt alleging that she contacted Husband “on
numerous occasions regarding […] unexpected repairs” and that Husband
“failed to communicate with [her] regarding the repairs.” Id. at 33.
[3] In December 2019, the trial court held a final hearing, during which it heard
evidence on Wife’s contempt petition and the value of marital assets, among
other things. At the time of the hearing, Husband was employed with the
Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 20A-DC-845| December 16, 2020 Page 2 of 9
United States Postal Service, and Wife was not employed and was receiving
Social Security Supplemental Income (SSI). Wife and Husband each has a
vested pension, from which they are not currently receiving payments. No
evidence was presented regarding the pensions’ present value, but Husband
testified that his monthly pension payment would be roughly equal to Wife’s
pension payment plus her SSI payment. Tr. Vol. 2 at 97-98. Husband also has
a defined benefit retirement account with a value of $272,826.99. Ex. Vol. 1 at
188 (Respondent’s Ex. K). Husband submitted a list of requests that reads in
pertinent part,
19. [Husband] works [sic] as a postal carrier for the United
States Postal Services [sic] for twenty-seven (27) years on the date
of filing. [Husband] seeks to keep his entire pension earned at
the United States Postal Service.
20. [Wife] shall keep her pension earned through the Naval
Aviaonics [sic] for eighteen (18) years of service, plus [Wife’s]
Social Security payments of $380.000 per month.
21. [Husband] shall receive from his Postal Service Retirement
Account a total of $155,190.16 from his retirement account [sic].
[Wife] shall receive a total of $117,636.83 from his retirement
account. [Wife’s] counsel shall prepare a Qualified Domestic
Relations Order for the transfer with [Wife’s] shares paying for
all of the taxes, penalties and fines for any early distribution.
22. [Husband] agrees that an uneven distribution of the marital
estate is warranted. [Husband] believes that [Wife] should
receive an additional $10,000.00 more in assets to reflect any
future payments of spousal support over the next two (2) years
prior to [Husband’s] retirement.
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Ex. Vol. 2 at 34-35 1 (Respondent’s Ex. HH).
[4] In February 2020, the trial court issued a dissolution decree that reads in
pertinent part,
26. Personal property values are not in dispute and are reflected
in Wife’s exhibit #11 and Husband’s exhibit V, both
incorporated by reference, attached hereto, and made a part of
this Order.…
27. Each party has a vested pension, and combined value of
them is $277,826.99. The disparity in respective values is
$37,554, half of which, in order to equalize the available
retirement funds to each party, is $18,777. Such is the amount
required by this Court to be allocated by Husband to Wife of his
USPS pension via Qualified Domestic Relations Order within
thirty (30) days of this order. Wife’s counsel to prepare QDRO.
28. The Court adopts [Wife’s] allocation of assets and liabilities
contained in Wife’s exhibit #11, except required [sic] Husband to
assume responsibility for the $10,000 loan from his parents.
29. This division creates a net allocation advantage to Wife in
the amount of $5314, which the Court further includes as a
difference justified as part of temporary spousal maintenance.
30. The Court determines that fair and reasonable temporary
spousal support of $100 weekly [to] Wife until Husband retires,
and Wife begins to receive her portion of the USPS retirement
(referenced in paragraph #27 above). Husband may also opt to
pay this in a lump sum via deduction from his pension plan at the
1
Unlike the first exhibit volume, the second volume’s handwritten pagination does not match the PDF
pagination, which we have cited here.
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recommended $10,000 figure as temporary spousal maintenance
instead of a weekly amount.
Appealed Order at 4-5. The decree says nothing about Wife’s contempt
petition.
[5] Wife filed a motion to correct error, which she amended to read in pertinent
part as follows:
3. That in the Decree of Dissolution, this Court mischaracterized
the Parties’ pensions and defined benefit retirement accounts.
Specifically, this Court referred to the Parties’ [sic] as having
vested pensions totally [sic] $277,926.99 [sic].
4. That Husband has a TSP defined benefit account which
totaled $277,926.99 [sic]. Prior to the hearing, Wife did not have
the value of Husband’s TSP and therefore, it was left off of her
proposed asset/debt distribution spreadsheet and a request was
made to split the account equally. Husband included the TSP on
his spreadsheet; however, showed an unequal distribution of the
TSP which then gave Husband $37,554.00 more of his TSP than
Wife. Wife believes that this Court misunderstood the testimony
in this matter and mistakenly viewed Husband’s spreadsheet to
show the retirement accounts listed as the total retirement
accounts when it was only showing Husband’s proposal on how
his own TSP would be divided.
5. That in addition to Husband’s TSP, both Parties had
pensions. Husband’s monthly pension payment is more than
Wife’s monthly pension payment. Husband requested at the
hearing that each Party keep his or her own pension. Wife
requested at the hearing that each pension be divided equally due
[to] Husband’s pension being substantially more than Wife’s.
6. That this Court adopted Wife’s Exhibit 11 with one change
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which was to reallocate [Wife’s] debt to Husband’s parents over
to Husband. Exhibit 11 was Wife’s spreadsheet regarding
assets/debts and did not include the TSP or the pension.
7. That Wife believes it was this Court’s intention based on the
wording of the order to accept Wife’s Exhibit 11 with the one
change regarding the debt to Husband’s parents and that the
Court further attempted to equally divide the TSP and pensions.
8. That Wife respectfully requests that this Court enter an order
correcting the error regarding the TSP and pensions and enter
what Wife believes is the intention of the Court which was to
divide both the TSP and the pensions equally.
Appellant’s App. Vol. 2 at 44-45. The trial court denied Wife’s motion. Wife
now appeals.
Discussion and Decision
Section 1 – The trial court abused its discretion in conflating
Husband’s retirement account with the parties’ pensions.
[6] Wife contends that the trial court conflated Husband’s retirement account with
the parties’ pensions and thereby improperly left the pensions out of the marital
estate. The division and distribution of marital assets lie within the trial court’s
sound discretion. Cohen v. Cohen, 120 N.E.3d 1083, 1085 (Ind. Ct. App. 2019),
trans. denied. “On appeal, we review the trial court’s decision only for an abuse
of that discretion.” Id. “A trial court abuses its discretion only when its
decision is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances
before the court.” Id.Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 20A-DC-845| December 16, 2020 Page 6 of 9
[7] Our factual summary clearly shows that the trial court conflated Husband’s
retirement account with the parties’ pensions, and in doing so it improperly left
the pensions out of the marital estate. Indiana Code Section 31-15-7-4(a)
provides that the trial court in a dissolution action “shall divide the property of
the parties, whether: (1) owned by either spouse before the marriage; (2)
acquired by either spouse in his or her own right: (A) after the marriage; and (B)
before final separation of the parties; or (3) acquired by their joint efforts.”
“Indiana law has been uniformly interpreted as requiring the trial court to
divide ‘all’ the property of the parties, specifically prohibiting the exclusion of
any assets from the scope of the court’s powers to divide and award.” Nill v.
Nill, 584 N.E.2d 602, 604 (Ind. Ct. App. 1992), trans. denied.
[8] Indiana Code Section 31-15-7-4(b) provides that the court “shall divide the
property in a just and reasonable manner[.]” The court may do so by dividing
the property in kind; “setting the property or parts of the property over to one
(1) of the spouses and requiring either spouse to pay an amount, either in gross
or in installments, that is just and proper”; “ordering the sale of the property
under such conditions as the court prescribes and dividing the proceeds of the
sale”; or ordering the distribution of pension benefits “that are payable after the
dissolution of marriage, by setting aside to either of the parties a percentage of
those payments either by assignment or in kind at the time of receipt.” Id.[9] “The court shall presume that an equal division of the marital property between
the parties is just and reasonable.” Ind. Code § 31-15-7-5. This presumption
may be rebutted by a party who presents relevant evidence that an equal
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division would not be just and reasonable, such as evidence regarding “[t]he
contribution of each spouse to the acquisition of the property,” “[t]he economic
circumstances of each spouse at the time the disposition of the property is to
become effective,” “[t]he conduct of the parties during the marriage as related
to the disposition or dissipation of their property[,]” and “[t]he earnings or
earning ability of the parties as related to: (A) a final division of property; and
(B) a final determination of the property rights of the parties.” Id. “The
statutory factors are to be considered together in determining what is just and
reasonable; any one factor is not entitled to special weight.” In re Marriage of
Lay, 512 N.E.2d 1120, 1125 (Ind. Ct. App. 1987).
[10] In its dissolution decree, the trial court did not specify whether an equal
division of the marital property would be just and reasonable, and thus we are
unable to conclusively divine the court’s intent. The decree, which borrows
heavily from Husband’s list of requests, does not give a reason for dividing
Husband’s retirement account unequally, 2 and it does not actually value or
divide the pensions at all. 3 In sum, we hold that the trial court abused its
discretion in conflating Husband’s retirement account with the parties’
pensions, and therefore we reverse and remand with instructions to amend the
decree accordingly. On remand, the trial court may choose to receive evidence
2
Husband’s testimony suggests that he proposed an unequal division based on Wife’s alleged dissipation of
marital assets, but the record is ambiguous on this point.
3
Consequently, we are unpersuaded by Husband’s reliance on Quillen v. Quillen, 671 N.E.2d 98 (Ind. 1996),
and In re Marriage of Church, 424 N.E.2d 1078 (Ind. Ct. App. 1981).
Court of Appeals of Indiana | Memorandum Decision 20A-DC-845| December 16, 2020 Page 8 of 9
regarding the present value of the parties’ pensions, or it may rely on existing
evidence regarding the projected amount of the monthly pension payments.
Regardless, the amended decree must indicate whether an equal division of the
marital property is just and reasonable.
Section 2 – On remand, the trial court must rule on Wife’s
contempt petition.
[11] Wife also contends that the trial court erred in failing to rule on her contempt
petition. This was clearly an oversight on the trial court’s part, and therefore on
remand the court must rule on this issue.
[12] Reversed and remanded.
Najam, J., and Riley, J., concur.
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