In re Marriage of Pospisil5/23/2000
APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Tenth Judicial District, In and for the County of Fergus, The Honorable David Cybulski, Judge presiding.
Submitted on Briefs: August 5, 1999
Clerk
Justice James C. Nelson
Joyce M. Pospisil (Joyce) appeals two orders issued by the Tenth Judicial District Court, Fergus County. Joyce first contends that a Scheduling Order, issued January 12, 1999, which set a hearing date for January 25, 1999, violated her due process rights. Second, she contends that the court's January 26, 1999 Order Implementing Property Division did not achieve an equitable division of marital assets in accordance with the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, and the Final Decree and Judgment, entered by the same court on June 11, 1996, and June 20, 1996, respectively.
We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Joyce raises the following issues on appeal:
1. Did the District Court deny Joyce Pospisil due process by scheduling a hearing date on fourteen-days notice?
2. Did the District Court err by failing to make an equitable division of the marital estate?
Factual and Procedural Background
The parties were married on October 11, 1979, and separated in March of 1994. At the time of their marriage, Joyce was 45 years old, and George Pospisil (George) was 46 years old. They both have children from prior marriages, but none from their marriage to each other. While married, Joyce and George operated, and for a while lived on, a ranch and farm located in Fergus County, Montana.
The separation was not amicable. After more than two years of contentious litigation a final dissolution decree was entered by the District Court on June 20, 1996. Although Joyce entered the marriage with little property of her own, she was awarded $305,855 as her net share of the marital estate. Notwithstanding the fact that George did not directly appeal this judgment, Joyce's days of wrangling with her former spouse were far from over.
The primary source of contention between the parties--then and now--is property, namely the 1,400 acre farm and ranching operation near Moore, Montana. Prior to his marriage to Joyce, George was gifted 160 acres from his parents, and an undivided fifteen-percent interest in 1281 acres. In 1982, his parents entered a contract for deed with George, selling him the remaining eighty-five percent interest for $221,638. During their marriage, however, George and Joyce did not make any payments on the contract for deed. George's parents and then his mother (his father died in 1984), not once demanded payment or gave any notice of default while George and Joyce were married. Further, George and Joyce treated the property as their own by paying taxes, paying related insurance premiums, using it as security on numerous occasions, and placing the entire property on the market for sale several times.
The cloudy legal status of the contract for deed would prove to be stormy. In the midst of the dissolution proceedings, George's mother, Ruby Pospisil (Ruby), filed a quiet title complaint against George and Joyce on March 14, 1995. This action sought to invalidate the contract for deed, and thereby remove a majority of the marital property from the dissolution. At this same time, George had, in fact, assumed power of attorney over his mother's affairs as of January 11, 1994. Ruby, who was age 94 at the time, resided in a Lewistown nursing home.
Ultimately, the quiet title action would be joined with the dissolution proceedings, by an order issued May 15, 1995. I
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