In Re Marriage of Kaufman

Opinion

FLEMING, Acting P. J.

Dissolution of marriage cause. Wife appeals a postjudgment order correcting clerical error in the division of property.

On June 22, 1976, husband and wife, married for 34 years and with 2 adult children, obtained an interlocutory judgment of dissolution of marriage which reserved the issue of property division for later trial. At a mandatory settlement conference on July 13, 1976, husband and wife and their respective counsel stipulated in court to specific terms of a property division, spousal support, fees, and costs. The court approved the stipulated terms, made them the order of the court, and directed wife’s counsel to prepare a written judgment. Subsequently, counsel for the parties exchanged correspondence which discussed terms not previously agreed upon and covered by the stipulation and order. Thereafter, a proposed judgment modifying certain terms of the stipulation and order was approved as to form and content by both counsel, and was signed by the court on August 27, 1976.

Two and a half years after entry of judgment, husband, apparently on receiving demands from wife’s attorney, instituted this action to conform the judgment to the stipulation and order, asserting that his counsel at the time of approval of the judgment’s form and content inadvertently failed to notice clerical discrepancies between (1) the stipulation and order and (2) the proposed judgment. The trial court found the judgment did not conform to the stipulation and order, and corrected the judgment in the following respects: (1) the statement in the judgment that wife’s spousal support was based on husband’s “current or projected net income... of $120,000” was changed to read husband’s “adjusted gross or taxable income which has been approximately $120,000 per year,” (2) the provision that husband would maintain six life insurance policies for the benefit of his children was

[150]

changed to two policies. The first change was made to remove any implication from the judgment that the amount of wife’s support would be correlated to husband’s future income, the court concluding that the stipulation and order looked to past income only. The second change was made to conform the provision on life insurance to the exact terms of the stipulation and order, which specified that only two life insurance policies (rather than six) would be held by husband for the benefit of his children.