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.

476 P.3d 554

Jerry V. BROWN, Appellant,

v.Yvonne A. BROWN, Appellee.

No. 20190543

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed October 29, 2020

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

Judge Gregory K. Orme authored this Opinion, in which Judges Ryan M. Harris and Diana Hagen concurred.

Opinion

ORME, Judge:

¶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.

BACKGROUND

¶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.

¶10 After trial, the court entered its findings of fact and conclusions of law, dividing the marital estate and deciding other issues pertinent to the divorce. Only two parts of those findings and conclusions, which were later folded into the divorce decree, are relevant to this appeal. First, the court ruled that "[b]ecause marital funds were expended for the benefit of [the practice, it] was converted from Jerry's separate property to marital property." The court based this ruling on its finding that

[o]n two occasions, Jerry decided to use income from [the practice] to reinvest in the practice. First, in 2004 or 2005 Jerry opened a second dental office.... Opening that office required capital. Accordingly, through [the practice], Jerry secured a loan. The monthly payment on the loan was $2,000. The ... office was a failed venture.... Jerry used income from [the practice] to pay for this failed expansion, thereby decreasing the funds he routinely pulled from [the practice] to pay marital expenses as he routinely had done.

Second, in 2003 during the first marriage Jerry decided to renovate the [practice's building]. The renovation required capital. Jerry used available funds from [the practice] as well as a loan to pay for the renovation.... The monthly payment was $4,000. This monthly obligation left less money for Jerry to pull from [the practice] to pay for marital expenses as he routinely had done. According to [Yvonne], the renovation debt reduced the family income and [a]ffected "what we did and how we traveled."^[3]

¶11 Second, the court ruled that Yvonne was entitled to $96,409.72 in "pre-decree reasonable monthly expenses." The court based this amount on the extent to which Yvonne's reasonable expenses from June 2017 until April 2019—found by the court to be $9,464.45 per month—exceeded her monthly income, i.e., the amounts Jerry made available to her, her own earned income, and the amount she received from the sale of a laser. Specifically, it found that

[Yvonne's] monthly shortfall—for which she should have had access to marital funds but did not—can be calculated.

• For the two months from June and July 2017, [Yvonne's] monthly income was $8,839.92, her earned income plus the $6,000 Jerry paid to her. Her monthly expenses exceeded her income by $624.53 each month, for a total shortfall of $1,249.00.

• For August 2017, [Yvonne's] monthly income was $7,339.92, her earned income plus the $4,500 Jerry paid to her. Her monthly expenses exceeded her income by $2,124.53, the total shortfall for that month.

• For the four months from September to December 2017, [Yvonne's] monthly income was $5,339.92, her earned income plus the $2,500 Jerry paid to her. Her monthly expenses exceeded her income by $4,124.53 each month, for a total shortfall of $16,489.12.

• For the seven months from January to July 2018, [Yvonne's] monthly income was $2,839.92, her earned income. Her monthly expenses exceeded her income by $6,624.53 each month, for a total shortfall of $46,371.71.

• For the ten months from August 2018 to April 2019, [Yvonne's] income was $4,446.92, her earned income plus the $1,607 paid to her by Jerry. Her monthly expenses exceeded her income by $5,017.53 each month, for a total shortfall of $50,175.30.

• Prior to the decree, [Yvonne] sold one of the lasers for $10,000.00 and used this money to pay her monthly expenses.

¶12 Jerry appeals.

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶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...