 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Fobar v. Vonderahe9/26/2001
FOR PUBLICATION
OPINION - FOR PUBLICATION
Case Summary
Rose Fobar appeals the trial court's decree dissolving her marriage to Anthony Vonderahe, which also divided the parties' property and awarded attorney fees to Vonderahe. We affirm in part and remand in part.
Issues
We restate the issues presented as:
I. whether the divorce decree is void due to a jurisdictional defect caused by the trial court's failure to strictly comply with Howard County Local Rule 16(B), which requires the filing of financial disclosure forms by the parties to a dissolution proceeding;
II. whether the findings and conclusions support the trial court's award of attorney fees to Vonderahe; and
III. whether the trial court erred in its distribution of the parties' property.
Facts
The parties were married on December 30, 1983, and Vonderahe filed his dissolution petition on April 23, 1999. The parties had no biological children of their own, but Fobar had a daughter by her previous husband, who was killed in an automobile accident approximately one month before the daughter's birth. Fobar and her daughter received a monetary settlement related to her husband's death. The daughter also received social security benefits because of her father's death; the amount of these payments during Fobar's marriage to Vonderahe were approximately $100,000, and the daughter also had a guardianship fund set up after her father's death that had a value of approximately $25,000. Fobar testified that much of this $125,000 was spent on general living expenses. The trial court began conducting a final hearing on September 25, 2000, without either party's filing a financial disclosure form as was required at the time by a Howard County trial rule. Apparently, no mention of this rule was made during the course of the hearing. On December 13, 2000, the trial court entered written findings and conclusions, in accordance with Fobar's request. It found marital assets totaling $555,831 and marital liabilities totaling $66,072. Vonderahe received $248,355 in total assets minus liabilities, including the marital residence subject to a mortgage. Fobar received $241,404 in total assets minus liabilities, including two residences producing a total of $810 per month in rent, a parcel of land she inherited from her late husband, and four horses and two automobiles she claimed her daughter owned. The trial court also ordered Fobar to pay $5,000 of Vonderahe's attorney fees. Fobar now appeals.
I. Howard County Local Trial Rule 16(B)(4)
Fobar's first claim is that the decree of dissolution is void because the trial court proceeded to hear and enter judgment in this case without the parties filing financial disclosure forms or filing a waiver of that requirement, in alleged contravention of Howard County Local Trial Rule 16(B)(4) and our opinion in Buckalew v. Buckalew, 744 N.E.2d 504 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001). However, our supreme court granted transfer to consider Buckalew, and it recently issued an opinion reaching a result contrary to ours.
Howard County Local Rule 16(B) stated in part:
1. In order ... to insure complete, uniform and reciprocal disclosure of income, property, and assets, each party to an action for divorce or separation shall cause to be filed with the Court in which the action is pending, an Income and Property Disclosure Form which shall be from time to time designated and approved by the Howard County Courts. . . .
4. No final hearing may be scheduled and no decree of dissolution of marriage or legal separation shall be entered unless and until the prescr
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Indiana Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|