In re Marriage of Turner.

2022 COA 39. No. 21CA0663.  Dissolution of Marriage—Permanent Orders—Bonuses—Marital Property.

March 31, 2022

During their dissolution of marriage proceeding, the parties disputed whether potential bonuses that wife could receive after the dissolution constituted marital property subject to division. The district court entered permanent orders in January 2021 concluding that the year-end bonuses were not marital property subject to division. Several weeks after the permanent orders hearing, wife was awarded substantial bonuses.

Husband contended on appeal that the district court misapplied the law by excluding wife’s potential bonuses from the marital property. He maintained that wife earned the bonuses in 2020 and a spouse’s compensation earned during the marriage is always marital property. Under the terms of wife’s employer’s annual incentive plan (AIP), most employees were eligible to receive an award if they were actively employed at the time of the award. AIP bonuses were not guaranteed and depended on the company achieving certain operating goals and objectives, the employee achieving performance goals, and the employee’s supervisor’s and chief executive officer’s discretion. Under wife’s supplemental incentive plan, potential bonuses were also discretionary and dependent on company earnings. Here, wife’s potential bonuses were not contractually enforceable as of the date of the permanent orders hearing, so they were not property and thus not marital property subject to division.

The judgment was affirmed.