McQuarrie v. McQuarrie

• Citation: 450 P.3d 1133
• Decision Date: 29 August 2019
• Docket Number: No. 20170956-CA,20170956-CA
• Parties: Melvin C. MCQUARRIE, Appellant and Cross-appellee, v. Janette Colledge MCQUARRIE, Appellee and Cross-appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Utah

450 P.3d 1133

Melvin C. MCQUARRIE, Appellant and Cross-appellee,

v.Janette Colledge MCQUARRIE, Appellee and Cross-appellant.

No. 20170956-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed August 29, 2019

James A. McIntyre and Richard R. Golden, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellant and Cross-appellee

Douglas B. Thayer, Lehi, Andrew V. Wright, and Cole L. Bingham, Lehi, Attorneys for Appellee and Cross-appellant

Judge Kate Appleby authored this Opinion, in which Judges Michele M. Christiansen Forster and David N. Mortensen concurred.

Opinion

APPLEBY, Judge:

¶1 Melvin C. McQuarrie appeals the district court’s order dismissing his counter-petition to modify a divorce decree (Decree). He argues the court erred in determining that his alimony obligation did not terminate when Janette Colledge McQuarrie remarried. Janette¹ cross-appeals, arguing the court erred in calculating her attorney fees award and in denying portions of her motion for an order to show cause why Melvin should not be held in contempt of court (Show Cause Motion). We affirm the district court’s determination that Melvin’s alimony obligation continued after Janette’s remarriage. We conclude the court abused its discretion in denying portions of the Show Cause Motion but not in calculating Janette’s attorney fees award. We therefore affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

¶2 Janette and Melvin divorced in 2008, and a Decree was entered pursuant to a mediated stipulation for divorce. The Decree named Janette primary caregiver to the parties’ minor child and ordered Melvin to pay $3,000 per month in child support until the child reached "the age of 26 or so long as [the child remained] a college student, whichever occur[red] later." A child support obligation worksheet was attached to the stipulation. In that worksheet, the parties acknowledged that Janette’s child support award was greater than the amount set by the statutory guidelines and indicated that the reason for the upward deviation was the parties’ "property settlement."

¶3 The Decree ordered Melvin to pay "$2,000.00 per month as alimony with a cost of living increase up to 3% per annum" while child support continued. After child support terminated, alimony would be "adjusted pursuant to the sum set forth in ‘Exhibit C’ to the [parties’ stipulation], with a cost of living increase of up to 3% per annum." Exhibit C is a spreadsheet that appears to summarize the payments and assets Janette would receive under the stipulation. It lists yearly payments from 2008 to 2039 (372 months) in each of the following categories: (1) Alimony and Child Support, (2) Taxes on Alimony, (3) Health Insurance, (4) Car Allowance, (5) Utilities and Property Taxes, and (6) House Maintenance. Exhibit C also provides sums labeled "House Value," "New Furniture," and "Personal Assets," as well as a sum labeled "Total Net Present Value." The alimony and child support category provides for a $5,000 payment in 2008, and the payment increases each year until the final payment of $12,500.40 in 2039. The Decree states that alimony will continue "until the first of any of the following occurrences: [Melvin’s] death; [t]he expiration of 372 months from the signing of the [Decree]; or [Janette’s] death."

¶4 The Decree ordered Melvin to purchase a $1,000,000 annuity for Janette within "[t]hirty-six months after the signing of the [Decree]." Janette was "to be irrevocably designated as the beneficiary of the annuity during her lifetime with the power to designate any blood relative as the beneficiary of any death benefit provided by the annuity" and was to dictate a "payout duration in excess of fifteen years." The Decree said it was "anticipated that the annuity [would] provide a stream of income to [Janette] for her lifetime sufficient to supplement what [Melvin] pays as alimony." In a footnote, the Decree ordered Janette and Melvin to meet every three years "at the Hyatt Regency, or comparable hotel, in San Diego, California" "without spouses or attorneys" "to review their respective standard of living." To maintain an "equal" standard of living, the footnote also permitted "an upward adjust[ment] of alimony ..., but never a downward adjustment."

¶5 Next, the Decree "divided and awarded" the parties’ property and their "marital debts and obligations." Janette was awarded the parties’ marital house. The Decree ordered Melvin to pay various expenses related to the house, and those payments were listed in sub-paragraphs 18(a)–(g). Sub-paragraph 18(a) ordered Melvin "to satisfy the monthly payments owing on the first deed of trust," and sub-paragraphs 18(b)–(g) ordered him to, among other things, pay the "real property taxes and homeowner’s insurance" until the first deed of trust was satisfied. But paragraph 21 provides, "Upon [Melvin’s] purchase of the annuity ... [his] responsibility for the payments outlined in paragraph 18(b)–(g) is ordered to cease and [his] obligation with respect to those items will be at an end." The Decree states that "[Melvin’s] payment of the first deed of trust, the real property taxes, and the homeowner’s insurance constitutes a part of the property settlement." Janette also received an award of "one-half of [Melvin’s] 401(k) retirement benefits accrued during the parties’ marriage."

¶6 As "part of the property settlement agreed upon by the parties," the Decree ordered Melvin to permanently "employ [Janette] with one of his companies" and, as a benefit of that employment, the company was required to "pay for [Janette’s] health insurance premiums for as long as [she] require[d] medical insurance." The Decree also ordered Melvin to "maintain medical insurance for the medical expenses of the [parties’] minor child" and to "pay for the minor child’s out-of-pocket costs" and "uninsured medical expenses." The Decree ordered that if Janette incurred "medical expenses on behalf of the minor child," she was to either "provide written verification of the cost and payment of the medical expenses she paid on the minor child’s behalf" to Melvin or make arrangements "so that [Melvin] may be billed directly." Following the provisions dealing with medical insurance, the Decree states that "[t]he payment of [Janette’s] health insurance premiums and uncovered medical expenses constitute a portion of the property settlement."

¶7 Many of the Decree’s provisions mention Janette’s potential remarriage, and the Decree provides that certain obligations will terminate if she remarries. For example, sub-paragraph 7(a) states that Melvin "shall not be responsible for any medical premium, prescription, out of pocket, or co-pay expense related to [Janette’s] future spouse, or spouse’s children ." (Emphasis added.) Paragraph 11 allows Janette "to designate any blood relative as the beneficiary of any death benefit provided by the annuity," but "in the event she remarries , she may not designate her spouse or his children as beneficiaries." (Emphasis added.) Paragraph 28 provides, "In the event [Janette was ] unmarried , commencing in 2011, and every five years thereafter so long as [Janette] remain[ed] single, [Melvin was] ordered to purchase or lease for [her] ... a model year 2012 Cadillac Escalade, or equivalent." (Emphasis added.) Under paragraph 19, "should [Janette ] remarry ," Melvin shall "continue to pay the first deed of trust until it is paid in full" but he will be "relieved of any and all obligations to pay and maintain the items in ... sub-paragraphs 18(b)–(g)." (Emphasis added.) Finally, paragraph 29 provides that the parties cannot divest assets to a future spouse, and paragraph 30 prohibits the disclosure of any settlement or of the terms of the Decree to future spouses. The Decree does not contain a separate provision addressing whether Melvin’s alimony obligation would terminate or continue if Janette remarried.

¶8 Janette remarried in 2014. That year, she filed a petition to modify the Decree (Petition to Modify) based on Melvin’s alleged fraud. She claimed Melvin did not disclose certain assets and "misrepresented the value of the marital home ... for purposes of inducing her to enter into the property settlement." Janette also filed the Show Cause Motion, asserting Melvin should be held in contempt of court for, among other things, failing to pay a cost of living increase on the alimony award, Janette’s "uncovered" and "out-of-pocket medical expenses," and "one-half of [his] 401(k)," and for failing to purchase the $1,000,000 annuity.

¶9 Melvin filed a counter-petition to modify (Counter-petition). He asserted Janette’s remarriage constituted "a substantial and material change in the parties’ circumstances" that justified terminating his alimony obligation. Specifically, he argued that alimony terminated as a matter of law upon Janette’s remarriage because the Decree did not "specifically provide otherwise." See Utah Code Ann. § 30-3-5(9) (LexisNexis Supp. 2018) ("Unless a decree of divorce specifically provides otherwise, any order of the court that a party pay alimony to a former spouse automatically terminates upon the remarriage or death of that former spouse.").

¶10 After a hearing, a court commissioner entered a recommendation on the Petition to Modify, the Show Cause Motion, and the Counter-petition. To start, the commissioner recommended denying Melvin’s request to terminate alimony. The commissioner reasoned, "[A]lthough the decree does not state alimony will not terminate upon remarriage, the Decree is clear on its face considering all the other references to remarriage in the other provisions ... that the parties intended for alimony to survive remarriage."

¶11 Next, the commissioner addressed the Show Cause Motion, beginning with the cost of living adjustment to alimony. First, the commissioner concluded that the alimony provisions established "a cost of living increase of up to 3% per annum (and never downward)," but that the actual increase was "to...