Marriage of Spence, 2016 MT 191N

Todd and Maureen Spence married in Dec. 2010, separated in Mar. 2013, and filed a joint dissolution petition in Feb. 2015 that represented no marital debts.
At the May 2015 hearing the parties disputed allocation of debt; the court continued the matter and referred them to a settlement master but they did not resolve the dispute.
Maureen moved for further proceedings alleging Todd spent nearly $5,000 of her SSI disability checks while she was incarcerated; she produced SSA documents showing overpayments for Jan–Dec 2014.
SSA sent notices about the overpayment and benefit cessation; Maureen applied for waiver, which SSA denied, finding she knew or should have known the payments were incorrect but accepted them.
The District Court found Maureen believed payments had stopped, found Todd received and used the checks, and ordered Todd responsible for repaying $4,691 to SSA.
Todd appealed, raising only the SSA repayment allocation; he submitted new documents for the first time on appeal and did not provide transcripts or evidence to the District Court.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Todd)	Defendant's Argument (Maureen)	Held
Whether the District Court erred by assigning Todd responsibility for SSA overpayment repayment	Todd contends Maureen was notified of reductions and could not know amounts were erroneous; funds were used for Maureen’s phone cards, deposited on pre-release, and paid criminal fines	Maureen argued Todd received, endorsed, and used her disability checks while she was incarcerated and SSA seeks repayment from her, so Todd should be liable to repay	Court affirmed: District Court did not clearly err or abuse discretion; Todd failed to preserve or present evidence below and bears burden on appeal

In re Marriage of Crowley, 318 P.3d 1031 (2014) (district courts have broad discretion in dividing marital estate)
In re Marriage of Richards, 330 P.3d 1193 (2014) (appellate review: affirm unless findings are clearly erroneous or court abused discretion)
Huffine v. Boylan, 782 P.2d 77 (1989) (appellant must show error by reference to record)
Yetter v. Kennedy, 571 P.2d 1152 (1977) (burden of showing error rests with appellant)