In re Marriage of Davies

John A. Davies was the defendant in a contested marriage-dissolution action filed by plaintiff, Barbara J. Davies, in the circuit court of Du Page County. The trial court, electing to proceed in the bifurcated manner seemingly permitted under section 401(3) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 40, par. 401(3)), entered a judgment dissolving the marriage and expressly providing that marital-property rights and related matters would be resolved after a separate hearing. Defendant died prior to entry of judgment on the property and related questions, and the trial judge subsequently entered a supplemental judgment order concerning property and maintenance rights. Plaintiff appealed, both judgments were reversed by the appellate court (105 Ill. App.3d 661), and we granted the petition for leave to appeal filed by the administrator of defendant's estate. The facts of this case are relatively simple. Plaintiff filed an amended petition for dissolution of marriage on April 30, 1979, and, following a hearing, the trial judge entered a judgment of dissolution on October 9. That judgment order did not purport to deal with marital-property rights or related rights, but instead provided that such rights would be the subject of further proceedings. The major dispute concerning marital property centered on the distribution of the shares of the John Davies Corporation, which the parties held as joint tenants, and the division of vested pension rights acquired by plaintiff from her former employment and held to be marital property. The parties were the sole shareholders of the stock of the John Davies Corporation. After conducting a hearing, the trial court issued an opinion letter to the attorneys for both parties which provided that all marital property should be equally divided. Although that letter was dated on March 28, 1980, it was not filed of record until April 9. In his letter, the trial judge also directed plaintiff's attorney to prepare a judgment order conforming with the terms of his letter and to present the order for entry on or after April 7.