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Turner v. Turner9/30/2002
share of the marital assets "will generate." Evidently, the court believed that appellant's investment income -- whatever the amount -- would prove sufficient to overcome the disparity in the parties' economic positions. Because the court did not indicate even a minimal amount of money that it believed appellant will have available to her from her investments to use towards her own support, it is not clear how the court arrived at its determination as to an appropriate alimony award. In other words, without any finding by the court of some amount of anticipated investment earnings, we do not know how the court determined to award appellant monthly alimony of $2000.
As we indicated, F.L. § 11-106(b)(3) entitles the court to consider the standard of living that the parties established during the marriage. In order to live as appellant was accustomed during the marriage -- a lifestyle that she helped the parties to achieve -- the unassailable fact is that appellant must supplement her income by using money generated from investments. Middleton's testimony made clear that, unlike the alimony award of $24,000 and the earned income of $35,000, which are fixed sums, the amount of money that appellant can realistically expect to obtain from investments is by no means certain. Recent times have underscored the difficulty of predicting a yield on investments, and the challenges of relying on the stock market as a supplement to support. Indeed, the turbulent state of the stock market highlights the unpredictability of potential income from such investments, as well as the risks associated with them. Even cautious investors would not have anticipated that investments in companies like Enron or WorldCom could evaporate overnight.
Family Law § 11-106(b)(9) provides that, in regard to the alimony determination, the court must consider "the ability of the party from whom alimony is sought to meet" his own needs, along with the needs of appellant. Further, F.L. § 11-106(b)(11) obligates the court to consider the financial resources of both parties. In the context of this case, these provisions suggest that, in ascertaining the appropriate alimony award, the court should have considered the extent to which the anticipated growth of the parties' assets might be affected by their respective needs to use their assets to meet expenses. We explain.
Middleton's predictions varied with the size of the amount available for investment. Clearly, if appellant needed to use a portion of her investment income to meet current needs and expenses, this would impact on the growth potential of her investment assets; a reduction in the size of the investment corpus would affect the income stream that the monetary award can generate. The court did not indicate the portion of the monetary award that it believed appellant would be in a position to invest. In projecting the income stream for appellant's support, we cannot determine if the court considered whether or the extent to which appellant will have to use the corpus of the monetary award to meet her needs.
In contrast to appellant, because appellee's career remains intact, and he continues at the helm of a prosperous company, with a salary that far exceeds his expenses, it is unlikely that he will have to use investment income or invade the corpus of investments to meet current expenses. Instead, it appears that Mr. Turner will be in a position to maintain the corpus and reinvest the income generated by his investments, thereby adding to his wealth and widening the disparity in the parties' economic status. Again, it does not appear that the court considered that circumstance.
In its ruling with respect to appellant's post-trial motion, wh
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