Brown v. Brown
Decision Date | 29 October 2020 |
Docket Number | No. 20190543,20190543 |
Citation | 476 P.3d 554 |
Court | Utah Court of Appeals |
Parties | Jerry V. BROWN, Appellant, v. Yvonne A. BROWN, Appellee. |
Julie J. Nelson, Troy L. Booher, and Alexandra Mareschal, Attorneys for Appellant
Ron W. Haycock Jr., S. Spencer Brown, and Scarlet R. Smith, Attorneys for Appellee
Opinion
¶1 Jerry V. Brown appeals the district court's determination in this divorce proceeding that his dental practice was marital property and that his ex-wife, Yvonne A. Brown, was therefore entitled to half its value. Jerry1 also appeals the district court's award of $96,409.72 to cover pre-decree expenses Yvonne incurred over nearly a two-year period while the divorce was pending. We reverse in part, affirm in part, and remand for revision of the divorce decree.
¶2 In 1986, Jerry purchased a dental practice and building. By 1996, he had completely paid off the purchase price. During a portion of this ten-year period, Jerry was married to his first wife, with whom he had four children. After Jerry and his first wife divorced, Jerry and Yvonne married in 1996. Yvonne had also been married previously and brought three children into the marriage. In 1999, Jerry and Yvonne had a child together. They divorced in 2011 but remarried approximately one year later.
¶3 Soon after their first marriage to each other, Yvonne began working at the practice. After about a month, however, Jerry and Yvonne decided that it was not a good fit. They determined that Yvonne should stay home and care for their blended family from then on, but she occasionally filled in at the practice on an emergency basis. Regardless of the hours Yvonne worked, the practice paid her a monthly salary, depositing her paycheck into Jerry and Yvonne's joint bank account.
¶4 During both his marriages to Yvonne, Jerry kept the practice's accounts separate from the couple's joint accounts. Jerry testified that he did not "at any time ... put personal funds from [his] personal account or [their] marital accounts into [the practice]." And Yvonne testified that Jerry was "controlling with finances" and threatened to fire his employees if they discussed the practice's finances with her. Yvonne's sister, who worked at the practice, testified that Jerry kept the finances "quiet" and would not discuss them with Yvonne. She further testified that whenever Yvonne would "come to the office, he'd empty the cashbox and walk across the street and deposit all of the money into the bank."
¶5 In addition to drawing his regular salary, Jerry paid expenses attributable to the marriage, such as the couple's mortgage payments, vehicle payments, insurance bills, travel expenses, and other obligations, using funds from the practice's account. Jerry also deposited $6,000 from the practice's account into the couple's joint account each month, which Yvonne used to pay household expenses. But because Yvonne did not have access to any other bank accounts, if she needed extra money, she "had to ask for it, and usually it became very heated because [Jerry] controlled all of [the] finances."
¶6 In 2002, Jerry and Yvonne built an $860,000 home that came with a $5,722 monthly mortgage obligation. Around this time, Jerry also renovated the practice's building and financed it solely by a loan secured by the building, which resulted in a $4,000 monthly payment that he paid from the practice's revenue. Yvonne testified that the practice's new debt affected the family's lifestyle, income, activities, and travel. She further explained that they "had to make a lot of sacrifices financially at the time to offset [the] income" that stayed in the practice instead of being used to supplement the available marital funds. And around 2004 or 2005, Jerry attempted to open a second office to expand the practice, which proved unsuccessful. This investment, too, was funded solely by the practice.
¶7 After the couple's first divorce and their subsequent remarriage in 2012, Yvonne began attending school to become an esthetician and eventually obtained her master's degree in that field. Jerry paid for her schooling from the practice's revenue. In 2013, Yvonne opened a spa at the practice, for which Jerry added three rooms to the practice's building. This new spa company was a separate entity from the practice and had a separate bank account. Jerry testified that he spent "well over $200,000" of the practice's revenue on spa equipment to help Yvonne get established.
¶8 In June 2015, the couple separated again. Around this time, Yvonne started another spa company in a different location and moved all the equipment that Jerry had purchased with funds from the practice to this new location. After this separation, Jerry and Yvonne continued to engage in financial transactions. Jerry had refinanced the practice's building in May 2015 and obtained $200,000, which he was solely responsible for repaying, and gave half—$100,000—to Yvonne. For a time, he continued to deposit $6,000 a month into a bank account for Yvonne. Jerry also kept making monthly payments of $2,200 on a laser he had purchased in 2015 for Yvonne's business until it was paid off in March 2019, even though Yvonne had agreed to make the payments. Jerry also continued to help Yvonne by investing over $120,000 in her new spa company. Jerry testified that he did this because he was "hoping that [they] might be able to work things out because [finances were their] biggest problem," and he hoped that those issues would be resolved if her business became profitable.
¶9 In June 2017, Jerry and Yvonne realized that reconciliation was no longer a possibility and decided to divorce once again. Jerry made two more deposits of $6,000 in June and July into a personal account for Yvonne, and in August he deposited another $4,500. From September through December he deposited only $2,500 a month, and he did not deposit any money from January through July 2018. The court then ordered Jerry, starting in August 2018, to pay Yvonne temporary alimony in the amount of $1,607 per month,2 which Jerry paid until trial in April 2019.
¶12 Jerry appeals.
¶13 Jerry raises two issues. First, he asserts that the district court erred when it determined that the practice had become a marital asset. "[W]hether property is marital or separate is a question of law," which we review for correctness. Liston v. Liston , 2011 UT App. 433, ¶ 5, 269 P.3d 169. ¶14 Second, Jerry contends that the district court erred in ordering him to pay Yvonne...
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