Case No. 17-1569

In re the Marriage of Freudenberg

Christine Y. Freudenberg, Petitioner-Appellant

Mark William Freudenberg, Respondent-Appellee

Attorney for Appellant

Kevin D. Engels

Attorney for Appellee

Terry D. Parsons

Court of Appeals

Court of Appeals Opinion

Summary

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Linda M. Fangman, Judge.  AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.  Heard by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Bower, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (16 pages)

            Christine Freudenberg appeals, and Mark Freudenberg cross-appeals, from the spousal-support and property-distribution provisions of a dissolution decree.  Christine challenges the spousal-support award and property-distribution provisions as inequitable.  Mark argues that if this court modifies any of the economic provisions of the dissolution decree, the court must then reevaluate and adjust the entire decree.  Christine seeks an award of appellate attorney fees.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the dissolution decree but modify it with respect to the distribution of the parties’ retirement accounts.  We modify the decree to divide Mark’s John Deere pension using the Benson formula and to divide the increases in the values of Christine’s retirement funds which accrued during the marriage equally between the parties.  We award the values of Christine’s retirement accounts at the time of marriage to Christine.  We decline Christine’s request to require Mark to select a joint and survivor annuity option on his pension and name her as beneficiary.  We affirm the court’s award of spousal support.  We award Christine $1500 in appellate attorney fees.  Costs on appeal are assessed equally between the parties.