Connell v. Connell, 2010 UT App 139 (Utah App. 5/27/2010)
| Decision Date | 27 May 2010 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 20080619-CA. |
| Citation | 2010 UT App 139 |
| Parties | Valerie J. Connell, Petitioner and Appellant, v. Harold G. Connell, Respondent and Appellee. |
| Court | Utah Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Fourth District, Provo Department, 024400765, The Honorable Claudia Laycock.
Clark R. Nielsen and Kathryn J. Steffey, Salt Lake City, for Appellant.
Harold G. Connell, Lehi, Appellee Pro Se.
Before Judges Davis, Voros, and Bench.1
¶ 1 Petitioner Valerie J. Connell (Wife) appeals various rulings in the trial court's sixty-five-page divorce decree. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
¶ 2 Wife and Respondent Harold G. Connell (Husband) married in 1986. At the time, Wife had one child, whom Husband later adopted. The parties had six children together. At the time of the divorce petition, these children were ages fourteen, eleven, eight, six, four, and almost two.
¶ 3 After several temporary separations, the parties separated permanently in October 2001. Wife remained in the marital home with the children, made the house payments, and paid the children's expenses. She filed for divorce in April 2002, and in May 2002, the trial court entered temporary orders. Wife was granted custody of the children. Husband was ordered to maintain health insurance for Wife and the children and car insurance on the parties' vehicles. The court also ordered Husband to pay $230 per month in alimony and $1797 per month in child support. Further, on the assumption that Wife would need to work outside the home, the court ordered the parties to share equally any work-related child care expenses. Husband repeatedly failed to comply with these orders. The court found him in contempt at least once with respect to each of the orders.
¶ 4 In September 2005, the trial court bifurcated the proceedings and granted Wife a divorce. After a four-day trial in late 2006, the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law respecting property distribution, alimony, child support, attorney fees, and related matters. It entered a final amended divorce decree in June 2008. Wife appeals.
¶ 5 Wife's claims on appeal fall into four categories. First, she contends that the trial court erred by terminating alimony when she began working full-time in November 2003 and by denying future alimony. "We review a trial court's award of alimony for an abuse of discretion." Bakanowski v. Bakanowski, 2003 UT App 357, ¶ 7, 80 P.3d 153. Thus, "[w]e will not disturb a trial court's ruling on alimony as long as the court exercises its discretion within the bounds and under the standards we have set and has supported its decision with adequate findings and conclusions." Bell v. Bell, 810 P.2d 489, 491 (Utah Ct. App. 1991) (internal quotation marks omitted).
¶ 6 Second, Wife contends that the trial court erred by awarding her only 15% of her attorney fees. Generally, "[w]e review a trial court's decision regarding attorney fees in a divorce proceeding for an abuse of discretion." Jensen v. Jensen, 2008 UT App 392, ¶ 8, 197 P.3d 117. However, "the proper interpretation of a statute is a question of law." Rushton v. Salt Lake County, 1999 UT 36, ¶ 17, 977 P.2d 1201. Thus, the interpretation of the attorney fee statute is reviewed for correctness. See Bilanzich v. Lonetti, 2007 UT 26, ¶ 10, 160 P.3d 1041.
¶ 7 Third, Wife contends that the trial court erred by denying retroactive child support and nanny care costs. We review a trial court's child support order for an abuse of discretion. See Hill v. Hill, 841 P.2d 722, 724 (Utah Ct. App. 1992).
¶ 8 Finally, Wife contends that the trial court erred by refusing to award her reimbursement for one-half of the mortgage payments she made on the parties' marital home. We treat this issue as a request for an "equitable order[] relating to the children, property, debts or obligations, and parties," see Utah Code Ann. § 30-3-5(1) (2008).2 A trial court is given broad discretion in rendering such orders, which we review for an abuse of discretion. See Newmeyer v. Newmeyer, 745 P.2d 1276, 1277 (Utah 1987).
¶ 9 Wife challenges the trial court's decision to terminate her alimony after November 2003 and deny her future alimony. "[T]he principal purpose of alimony is economic, to enable the receiving spouse to maintain as nearly as possible the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage and to prevent the spouse from becoming a public charge." Myers v. Myers, 2010 UT App 74, ¶ 12, 653 Adv. Rep. 7 (internal quotation marks omitted). In fashioning an alimony award, trial courts must consider the statutory factors set forth in Utah Code section 30-3-5. See Utah Code Ann. § 30-3-5(8)(a). "If a trial court considers these factors in setting an award of alimony, we will not disturb its award absent a showing that such a serious inequity has resulted as to manifest a clear abuse of discretion." Bakanowski, 2003 UT App 357, ¶ 10 (internal quotation marks omitted).
¶ 10 Wife contends that the trial court's decision to terminate alimony and deny future alimony was based on three subsidiary errors by the trial court: (1) failure to adequately consider all of the mandatory statutory factors; (2) failure to impute Husband's higher historical income to him; and (3) failure to enforce the court's own prior ruling that Husband would be precluded from claiming that his second wife (Second Wife) was unable to share living expenses. We address each contention in turn.
¶ 11 Wife contends that the trial court failed to make adequate factual findings regarding the third mandatory factor set forth in Utah Code section 30-3-5, Husband's ability to provide support. See Utah Code Ann. § 30-3-5(8)(a)(iii). Specifically, Wife argues that the trial court's consideration of Husband's ability to pay was limited to examining his monthly income. Wife does not challenge the court's analysis under any of the other statutory factors.
¶ 12 In determining alimony, the trial court must consider several statutory factors, including the recipient spouse's needs and earning capacity and the payor spouse's ability to pay. See id. § 30-3-5(8).3 For each statutory factor, "the trial court must make sufficiently detailed findings of fact . . . to enable a reviewing court to ensure that the trial court's discretionary determination was rationally based upon these . . . factors." Bell v. Bell, 810 P.2d 489, 492 (Utah Ct. App. 1991). These detailed findings "`should . . . include enough subsidiary facts to disclose the steps by which the ultimate conclusion on each factual issue was reached.'" Rehn v. Rehn, 1999 UT App 41, ¶ 6, 974 P.2d 306 (omission in original) (quoting Stevens v. Stevens, 754 P.2d 952, 958 (Utah Ct. App. 1988)). "A trial court's failure to provide adequate findings [regarding the statutory factors] is reversible error when the facts [that logically support the findings] are not clear from the record." Andrus v. Andrus, 2007 UT App 291, ¶ 17, 169 P.3d 754. In addition, an adequate analysis of the factor regarding ability to pay "must do more than simply state the payor spouse's income." Young v. Young, 2009 UT App 3, ¶ 19, 201 P.3d 301 (citation omitted), cert. denied, 211 P.3d 986 (Utah 2009). The court must also consider the payor spouse's "needs and expenditures, such as housing, payment of debts, and other living expenses." Id. (emphasis and internal quotation marks omitted).
¶ 13 Here, the trial court found that Husband had a monthly income of $5996, a monthly rent payment of $752, monthly living expenses for himself and Second Wife of $1500, child-care costs of $380 per month, and child support payments of $1394 per month. Further, the court referenced Husband's financial declaration, which included a detailed list of Husband's other expenses, including insurance and transportation expenses. The court even attempted to estimate Husband's net monthly income to the penny after subtracting all expenses, including Wife's requested alimony award. In short, the trial court's findings are sufficiently detailed to demonstrate that its determination of alimony was rationally based. We find no abuse of discretion here.
¶ 14 Wife contends that the trial court erred in determining Husband's monthly income. During the marriage, Husband worked at Novell, Inc., where he earned $7979 per month. In June 2001, he left Novell to work for the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop, and then in February 2006 he took a job at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he earned $5996 per month. However, Husband was forced to resign from BYU because he failed to fulfill a condition of employment. At the time of the divorce decree, Husband was earning $5000 per month. During the marriage, Husband was the family's sole breadwinner. Beginning in November 2003, however, Wife began working full-time, earning about $6700 per month. Husband remarried in October 2005 and became the sole breadwinner in his new household.
¶ 15 The trial court set Husband's monthly income at $5996, the amount he was earning while working at BYU. That amount was more than he was earning at the time of trial but less than the $7979 per month he had earned at Novell. Wife contends that the trial court should have imputed to Husband his higher Novell income because he "voluntarily" left his employment there. The court's failure to do so, she argues, was an abuse of discretion.
¶ 16 A court may impute income to an underemployed spouse for purposes of calculating alimony. See Griffith v. Griffith, 959 P.2d 1015, 1018 (Utah Ct. App. 1998), aff'd, 1999 UT 78, 985 P.2d 255. The purpose of such imputation "is to prevent parents from reducing their child support or alimony by purposeful unemployment or underemployment." Id. A...
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