Donna Woods Hartman v. Patrick Erwin Hartman

This appeal arises out of the parties’ divorce following their second marriage to each other.  The trial court inter alia awarded the wife $75,000 for her contributions, in the form of personal services to the husband’s medical practice, and awarded her one-half of the equity in the home where the parties resided during the second marriage. Husband appeals the first award, arguing that the medical practice was his separate property and that the wife failed to prove any increase in the value of the practice during the marriage. He appeals the second award, arguing that the trial court erred by not considering two marital debts when it awarded half of the equity in the home to the wife. We vacate the $75,000 award pertaining to the value of the husband’s medical practice because there is no evidence of the value of the practice at the beginning or end of the second marriage. We remand for further proceedings the award of the equity in the home because the trial court failed to consider two marital debts, the husband’s loan to wife of $18,500 – which she used to buy her current residence – and the couple’s debt of $10,599.12, for which they were jointly liable. On remand, the trial court should consider inter alia: 1) the purpose of each debt, 2) which party incurred the debt, 3) which party benefitted from incurring the debt, and 4) which party is best able to repay the debt.