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Roberts v. Mack9/8/1998
Source of Appeal: Appeal from Superior Court of King County Docket No: 95-3-07344-5 Judgement or order under review Date filed: 10/30/96 judge signing: Hon. Robert S. Lasnik
Judges Authored by Mary K. Becker concurring H. Joseph Coleman Ann L. Ellington
[Editor's note: originally released as an unpublished opinion]
In this dissolution of a nine-year marriage, the wife argues that the property distribution shortchanged her because the trial court understated the value of her contribution to the husband's post-separation business earnings. Finding no error, we affirm.
After several years of marriage and work in other jobs, Dyan Roberts and David Mack became agents for an organization called United Group Associates (UGA). UGA is a company organized in pyramid fashion to sell insurance products. At the bottom, sales associates earn commissions on their sales and renewals. Managers at various levels above the bottom tier collect a portion of the commissions generated by those below them. Both sales associates and managers incur debt for the leads supplied to them by the company, against which their commissions are credited. They also are liable to the company in the event a purchaser fails to pay premiums.
When Mack first signed on with UGA, his position required that the couple move to North Carolina. In North Carolina Roberts took a salaried marketing job, but she also assisted Mack with his UGA business by advertising, interviewing contractors over the telephone, writing sales scripts, and doing paperwork. In 1989 Roberts and Mack moved to Washington. Here, Mack continued his association with UGA, and in 1990 Roberts also became an agent. She worked closely with Mack.
Their efforts met with increasing economic success, but by March 1, 1994, they decided to separate. At that time Dyan Roberts was 40 years old, and David Mack was 41. They continued their joint banking activities and their business activities together for about one year after separation. Then, in April of 1995, Roberts learned that UGA would not renew her yearly contract on the same terms as before. The effect of the non-renewal was to demote her to an inferior position within the organization. Roberts decided not to accept the demotion. Instead, she quit UGA and began to develop The Angel Connection, her own business concept for marketing angel-related products.
David Mack filed for dissolution in October, 1995. Trial, beginning on September 16, 1996, lasted three days. As there are no children of the marriage, the issues at trial concerned only property distribution and spousal maintenance. The primary issues in dispute arose from the disparity in their economic circumstances after they separated. David Mack, who stayed with UGA after Roberts quit the organization, accumulated a substantial amount of wealth in the two years between the separation and the trial. Roberts, on the other hand, rapidly lost ground financially when The Angel Connection did not prosper.
Roberts argued that David Mack & Associates, the sole-proprietorship business through which David conducted his work for UGA, had goodwill of considerable value that should be subject to distribution. And even with a substantial property award, she argued, she would need maintenance to meet her monthly budget. Maintenance, she said, would be appropriate considering that Mack was going to be left in a better economic position as a result of his continuing work with UGA. While acknowledging she was historically capable of making up to $60,000 a year, she testified that her ability to work had been compromised by current depression as well as back problems resulting from multiple car ac
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