J.K.N.A v. & (In re)

• Citation: 398 Mont. 72,454 P.3d 642,2019 MT 286
• Decision Date: 10 December 2019
• Docket Number: DA 18-0678
• Parties: IN RE: J.K.N.A, S.G.N.A, and K.A.N.A., Minor Children, Lora Diane Adami, Petitioner and Appellee, and Karen Cheryl Nelson, Respondent and Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Montana

398 Mont. 72

454 P.3d 642

2019 MT 286

IN RE: J.K.N.A, S.G.N.A, and K.A.N.A., Minor Children, Lora Diane Adami, Petitioner and Appellee, and Karen Cheryl Nelson, Respondent and Appellant.

DA 18-0678

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs: November 6, 2019

Decided: December 10, 2019

For Appellant: Marybeth M. Sampsel, Measure Law, P.C., Kalispell, Montana

For Appellee: Susan G. Ridgeway, Jill Gerdrum, Axilon Law Group, PLLC, Missoula, Montana

Chief Justice Mike McGrath delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 Karen Cheryl Nelson ("Nelson") appeals from an order of the Fourth Judicial District, Missoula County, which determined the parties had entered into a common law marriage. As a result of finding a valid common law marriage, the District Court awarded spousal maintenance be paid by Nelson to Lora Diane Adami ("Adami"), equitable division of the Nelson-Adami estate, calculation of Nelson’s child and medical support, and attorney’s fees to Adami.

¶2 We address the following issues on appeal:

1. Whether the District Court erroneously concluded that Adami established a common law marriage with Nelson.

2. Whether the District Court committed procedural errors requiring reversal.

3. Whether the District Court erred in granting a variance from child support guidelines in its calculation of child support.

4. Whether the District Court erred in awarding Adami attorney’s fees.

¶3 We affirm.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

¶4 In 1996, Nelson and Adami, both unmarried, began a relationship as a same-sex couple that continued for a period of nearly twenty years. Since same-sex marriage was not legally available or socially acceptable in states where the Nelson and Adami resided throughout their relationship, they did not marry. Nelson and Adami parented three children ("the children") together, with Adami being the biological mother of all three through artificial insemination: J.K.N.A. (born 2000), S.G.N.A. (born 2002), and K.A.N.A. (born 2005). At the time of trial, Nelson, Adami, and the children had resided in Missoula County for over 180 days prior to the filing of Adami’s Verified Petition for Parentage, Parenting Plan, Child Support, and Equitable Division of Property.

¶5 In the late 1990s, Nelson and Adami discussed beginning a family. Ultimately, through a mutual decision, Adami gave up her career as a pharmaceutical sales representative and Nelson continued pursuing her career as a physician. Prior to beginning the artificial insemination process, Nelson and Adami agreed that regardless of legal and societal disapproval, they were committed to each other and to having a family together.

¶6 In selecting a sperm donor, Nelson and Adami sought a donor with physical traits like Nelson. They also chose to give each of the children both of their last names to reflect their parenting covenant. Due to legal barriers, Nelson and Adami did not use the word "marriage," but termed their relationship as "a committed relationship." At the time of their decision to raise children together, Nelson and Adami made commitments toward each other to be life partners and function as married couples do. Adami bore three children that Nelson co-parented. All three children were given the last name of Nelson-Adami.

¶7 While Adami assumed the role of primary caregiver for the children, Nelson assumed the role as the breadwinner and took steps to financially provide for Adami and the children. Nelson named Adami as the beneficiary of all of her retirement accounts and life insurance policies. In considering new jobs, she only considered those that were in places acceptable to Adami. Nelson ensured that Adami and the children had health insurance through her employment. Nelson cared for Adami post-childbirth. Likewise, Adami took care of Nelson as needed and even cared for Nelson’s brother when he was undergoing addiction treatment, including paying $4000 on a credit card in her name for his treatment.

¶8 Nelson and Adami jointly chose godparents for their children and asked to be, and were, accepted by their church congregation as a family. Both Nelson’s and Adami’s extended family treated the other as a member of the family, essentially as if they were married spouses.

¶9 In support of Nelson’s career, Nelson and Adami frequently moved. After Nelson finished her residency in Virginia, she accepted a job as a physician at a local hospital and opened an outpatient private practice in Palestine, Texas, in 2001. Due to the move, Adami’s employment and career became secondary to Nelson’s, as Adami was unable to obtain employment in pharmaceutical sales in Palestine. Nelson and Adami agreed that Adami would quit her career and spend her time as a caregiver for their young children. Shortly after, Adami gave birth to their second child in 2002.

¶10 In 2004, Nelson’s and Adami’s third child was born and in 2006 the family moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, where Nelson ran an outpatient pain clinic. In 2009, the family moved to Wyoming, as Nelson accepted a position as the medical director at a pain and spine clinic. In 2012, Nelson accepted a job in Missoula, Montana, with Providence Health and purchased a house on Daly Street ("Daly House"). Adami stayed with the children in Wyoming until the end of the school year and then moved the family and their belongings to Missoula.

¶11 In July 2014, Nelson purchased a second residence in Missoula on Connell Street ("Connell House") across the alley from the Daly House. Adami objected to the purchase since it was a major expense ($529,000), but Nelson rebutted that her parents would live there and pay rent and that she needed a quiet place to do her research work. Nelson’s and Adami’s business advisor also advised against the purchase and testified they could not afford it. Due to the Connell House purchase, their savings were depleted by improvements and ongoing mortgage payments.

¶12 In August 2014, Nelson informed Adami that she was ending their relationship and would move into the Connell House in September. Over Adami’s objections, Nelson proceeded to remodel the Connell House so that the children would each have an updated bedroom. The down payment and remodeling of the Connell House used approximately $47,000 from their joint bank accounts and the mortgage added a debt obligation of $3,500 each month.

¶13 In the fall of 2014, Adami obtained employment, earning $33,900 annually. Nelson and Adami continued to pool their income and Adami continued to pay the bills from their joint funds. In protest of Nelson’s expenditures on the Connell House, Adami withdrew $37,314.64 from their joint account and deposited it into her personal account. She later removed the remaining funds from the joint account. Nelson began withdrawing funds from a joint stock account.

¶14 In January 2015, Nelson was notified that her employment would be ending in June 2015. Adami asked Nelson to sell the Connell House to reduce their debt, but Nelson declined. Instead, Nelson decided to list the Daly House on the market. Despite being offered to move into the Connell House, Adami and the children moved their furnishings into storage and began living in a camper-trailer parked on property belonging to a family friend.

¶15 The Daly House sold in September 2015; Nelson shared half of the proceeds from the sale with Adami. Adami used the proceeds to, among other things, secure a rental residence for herself and the children. Around this time, Nelson cut off Adami’s access to joint funds. Adami then asked Nelson for child support payments. Adami’s full-time income was insufficient to support the children and she was forced to spend her proceeds from the sale of the Daly House.

¶16 In the fall of 2015, Nelson received two competing employment offers: one for a position at Community Hospital in Missoula and the other for a position at a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska. Nelson accepted the Anchorage position and moved to Alaska sometime in October 2015. While Nelson presumed that Adami and the children would move with her to Anchorage, she moved without any commitment from Adami. Adami decided that it was not in the children’s best interest to relocate to Alaska. At the time of trial, Nelson reported that she would be moving back to Missoula and, eventually, fully executed an employment agreement with Community Hospital. However, on November 22, 2017, Adami provided notice to the District Court that Nelson’s employment had ended at Community Medical Center. At the time of the District Court’s order, Nelson reported that she was employed by the hospital in Anchorage working 70 hours each month, and had opened a private practice in Missoula.

¶17 Throughout their relationship, Nelson and Adami were known by their friends and family as a committed couple who conducted themselves as if they were married. While Nelson and Adami did not always hold themselves out as a couple to strangers or people who might not be accepting, friends, colleagues, and family members knew that they were monogamous and testified they acted as a married couple. Nelson wrote on benefit forms that Adami was her "partner" or "domestic partner." Nelson also occasionally referred to Adami as her "wife."

¶18 Nelson and Adami also commingled their assets and earnings during their relationship. Much of their real property was co-owned and referred to by Nelson and Adami as "our" property. Nelson and Adami were each a signor on each other’s bank accounts and family bills were paid from both accounts. They also formed a company together for investment purposes called Nelson Adami Farms, later Nelson Adami Entropy. Their business advisor, Steve Wright, confirmed that the investments were for the joint benefit of Nelson and Adami. While Nelson was the sole owner of the company for tax purposes, Adami was an authorized agent for the company and on the Edward Jones investment account. Adami was also granted ten percent ownership of Nelson’s company called Nelson Medical Intelligence.

¶19...