Supreme Court of Vermont

Stephen L. Klein v. Susanne T. Klein

October 21, 1988150 Vt. 466

Summary

The Court upheld the trial court’s valuation of the office building and rejected the challenge to the distribution of the property that was valued, but held that the unvalued law practice could not be included in the property division on the evidentiary record and arguments presented. It concluded that defendant was entitled to maintenance because she could not support herself at the marital standard of living and plaintiff retained substantially greater income and earning capacity; it also held that the child-support order was improperly structured and too vague to enforce. The judgment was reversed and remanded for further proceedings.

Holding

  • Property division, including the office-building valuation and valuation of plaintiff’s law practice.. The distribution of the assets the trial court valued was within its discretion, and the office-building valuation was not clearly erroneous. The court did not err by assigning the law practice to plaintiff without valuing it because neither party offered evidence of its value and defendant effectively waived the claim that its value had to be considered in the property distribution.
  • Defendant’s entitlement to spousal maintenance.. Defendant was entitled to an award of maintenance as a matter of law. The denial could not stand because defendant could not support herself at the standard of living established during the marriage, while plaintiff had the ability to pay and retained the income from his law practice.
  • Form and specificity of the child-support order.. The child-support order was erroneous because support should ordinarily be paid through the custodial parent and any obligation imposed on remand must be sufficiently precise to be enforced.

Docket 86-274

Cited authorities

  • 50 Mo. L. Rev. 259
  • 21 Fam. L.Q. 573

Cited by

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