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In re Marriage of Crosby7/1/2005
On review from the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Appeal from dissolution decree. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; JUDGMENT OF DISTRICT COURT AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED; CASE REMANDED.
The respondent in this case, Clayton Crosby, appeals from a property division in the decree of dissolution of the marriage between Clayton and his wife, Jean. The court of appeals modified and affirmed the decree. We vacate the decision of the court of appeals, affirm and modify the decree, and remand.
I. Facts and Prior Proceedings
In September 2002 Jean Crosby filed a petition for dissolution, following an eleven-year marriage to Clayton. The couple did not have children together, but they each had children from other marriages. At the time of the decree in 2003, Jean was thirty-eight. She had been employed throughout most of the marriage as a registered nurse and earned approximately $44,000 per year. She contributed to social security and also had a private pension plan. Clayton was forty-six and was employed by the United States Postal Service, where he had worked since 1975. He earned approximately $62,000 per year and participated in two retirement systems: civil service retirement, which is in lieu of social security, and a Thrift Savings Plan, which is similar to a 401(k) plan.
Clayton suffered a stroke in 2001, and he continues to have residual effects from it. He testified that he might lose his job because the complications from his stroke often caused him to miss work. Although he was able to use sick leave to cover most of his absences up to the time of trial, he only had eight hours of paid sick leave left, and he speculated that he would need to take leave without pay in the future, or possibly take early retirement.
Three months after Jean filed for dissolution, the district court entered a temporary order resolving the couple's disputes concerning their home; Clayton wanted to keep it, while Jean wanted to sell it. The court ordered the parties to sell the home, but granted Clayton temporary possession until it was sold, provided he pay the first and second mortgage payments. Clayton, however, failed to pay the first mortgage installments, which resulted in the initiation of foreclosure proceedings and $1610 in attorney fees. He also refused to produce the abstract for continuation, claiming it was lost, resulting in an $835 replacement fee.
After receiving an offer on the house, Clayton refused to sign the deed and closing documents. On April 30, 2003, the district court ordered the sale of the house without Clayton's signature. Between the time the parties received the offer to buy and the closing, Clayton's son burned a large hole in the carpeting, resulting in a $1500 deduction from the sale price. Clayton asked if he could keep some patio bricks, and the buyers agreed, deducting $1000 from the sale price. Clayton took some patio flagstones as well, resulting in another $1286 deduction.
II. The District Court's Property Award
A. The House
The district court divided the proceeds of the house sale by taking the gross sale price and deducting the mortgage balances to come to a net amount for distribution of $46,528.77. The court divided that figure in half, allocating $23,264.38 to each party. The court then deducted from Clayton's share all of the expenses, such as the delinquent mortgage payments accrued while he was under court order to pay them, the deduction for the bricks and flagstones, the foreclosure costs caused by his failure to pay the mortgage payments, damage to the carpet, the replacement of the abstract, and cleaning and moving expenses. As a result of these expenses, the
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