In Re Marriage of Lotz

Husband appeals from an interlocutory judgment dissolving the marriage.

In 1968 the parties married and formed a corporation “Your Own Things, Inc.,” which manufactured ladies’ clothes. Nine years later the parties separated and their community estate was in excess of $1.2 million. Husband’s earnings in the two preceding years was $100,000. Income to husband from the family corporation was $126,000. The home had a net value of $408,000 and the court valued the stock of the family corporation at $469,000. The court awarded the family residence to the wife, the corporation to the husband, and various other assets to each. The court found certain furs and jewels to be the wife’s separate property and included in the community property $15,700 withdrawn by husband from the family corporation, noting that this sum was not included in calculating the value of the corporation’s stock.

I

Appellant argues that the trial court used an improper method to value a closely held corporation owned by the parties. The court in finding of fact No. 6 set forth the method it used to determine the value of the corporation. That finding reads in part as follows:

Thus the court found the…