Biltis v. Biltis

CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedJanuary 30, 2026
Docket1 CA-SA 25-0210
StatusUnpublished
AuthorDavid B. Gass

This text of Biltis v. Biltis (Biltis v. Biltis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Biltis v. Biltis, (Ark. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

NOTICE: NOT FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATION. UNDER ARIZONA RULE OF THE SUPREME COURT 111(c), THIS DECISION IS NOT PRECEDENTIAL AND MAY BE CITED ONLY AS AUTHORIZED BY RULE.

IN THE ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION ONE

LEIGH NYVEEN BILTIS, Petitioner,

v.

JACK CHARLES BILTIS, Respondent.

No. 1 CA-SA 25-0210 FILED 01-30-2026

Petition for Special Action from the Superior Court in Maricopa County No. FC2022-051165 The Honorable Julie Ann Mata, Judge

JURISDICTION ACCEPTED; RELIEF GRANTED IN PART

COUNSEL

The Cavanagh Law Firm, PA, Phoenix By Christina S. Hamilton Counsel for Petitioner

Berkshire Law Office, PLLC, Tempe By Keith Berkshire, Alexandra Sandlin, Elizabeth Nañez Counsel for Respondent BILTIS v. BILTIS Decision of the Court

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Presiding Judge David B. Gass delivered the decision of the court, in which Judge Michael J. Brown and Judge Andrew J. Becke joined.

G A S S, Judge:

¶1 Wife Leigh Nyveen Biltis seeks special action review of the superior court’s order setting a supersedeas bond for husband Jack Charles Biltis. The court accepts special action jurisdiction and grants relief by vacating that portion of the order requiring wife to post with the superior court $667,650 in proceeds from the sale of the Scottsdale residence. The court denies any further relief.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

I. In the dissolution decree and later orders, the superior court awarded wife $5,250,900.23 plus an undetermined amount for her waste claim related to the Paradise Valley Residence.

¶2 The superior court entered a dissolution decree after a contested hearing. This special action and the pending appeal involve matters related to the superior court’s division of property orders.

¶3 In the property division, the superior court entered a judgment for wife against husband. The superior court set $5,094,000 as the total fixed award in wife’s favor on the property division. That amount included $3 million for wife’s equity in a wholly owned community business and $2,094,000 for wife’s equity in a minority owned business under Schickner v. Schickner, 237 Ariz. 194, 198 ¶ 17 (App. 2015). That judgment did not include 2 items. First, the superior court awarded wife $156,900.23 for her attorney fees and costs. Second, the fixed amount did not include the final value of wife’s waste claim against husband.

¶4 In the decree, the superior court left the waste claim’s value as a variable based on a formula the superior court devised. The value of wife’s waste claim arises because the parties over-financed the construction of their Paradise Valley residence. Husband argued the Paradise Valley house had a value of $44 million. Other evidence, including 2 appraisals, placed the value at about $25 million. The amount the parties owe on the Paradise Valley house remains an open question because it depends on the

2 BILTIS v. BILTIS Decision of the Court

amount of builder’s construction lien and the final sale price. Based on the above, the superior court determined a formula for calculating that waste claim: 50% of the amount owed to the builder when the Paradise Valley residence sells.

¶5 The decree required husband to make monthly payments of $10,000 on his property obligations under the decree. The first $5,000 monthly amount was for husband’s Schickner $2,094,000 obligation to wife until he fully paid the balance. The second $5,000 monthly amount was for husband’s obligation for wife’s waste claim, the final amount of which had not been determined. On top of the monthly payments, the superior court ordered husband to pay one-half of both balances in 2 years and the remaining balances with a balloon payment at 8 years.

¶6 With the above, the total award in wife’s favor was $5,250,900.23, which includes $156,900.23 in attorney fees and costs, with the total value of the waste claim yet to be determined.

II. The superior court also awarded wife husband’s one-half interest in the Scottsdale residence, which the superior court valued at $667,650.

¶7 The decree awarded wife the Scottsdale residence. If wife could not timely refinance the Scottsdale residence to remove husband from the mortgage, then wife had to sell it. Husband was to receive credit against his $5,250,900.23 obligation to wife for his 50% interest in the net proceeds.

¶8 Before wife sold the Scottsdale residence, the superior court valued husband’s 50% credit at $667,650. The superior court set that value based on its earlier order finding the net proceeds would be $1,335,300. The superior court made that earlier finding because both husband and wife asked it to do so even though the Scottsdale residence had not sold. And for a time, no one objected to that amount.

¶9 Wife now argues that amount is too high based on the actual sale. Wife alleges the total net proceeds ended up being $851,684.09, making husband’s share just $425,842.04. The difference is $241,807.96.

¶10 Nothing in the record shows wife asked the superior court to address this issue before raising it in this special action. Instead, an appendix to wife’s special action petition is a document from Chicago Title Agency Inc. dated June 5, 2025, purporting to be a final master statement for the sale of the Scottsdale residence. The date on that statement is long

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after the superior court set the $667,650 amount and several weeks after the superior court set the supersedeas bond. The parties provided the record, and nothing in that record discusses that statement or the actual sale amount. And nothing in the record suggests wife asked the superior court to reduce the $667,650 based on the actual sale amount.

III. The mathematics of the amended supersedeas bond, which is the subject of this special action, generally are not in dispute.

¶11 The parties actively litigated the supersedeas bond before the superior court, resulting in several changes before wife brought it to the court as a special action. Ultimately, the superior court required husband to post a $4,583,250.23 bond. The amount was based on how much husband owed wife under the decree exclusive of the undetermined waste judgment ($5,250,900.23) less a credit for husband’s one-half share of the Scottsdale residence net sale proceeds ($667,650).

¶12 Wife says husband did not ask the superior court to order wife to deposit $667,650 of the sale proceeds into a restricted account. But he did. In Husband’s Position Statement for Oral Argument on Supersedeas Bond and Stay, he wrote:

Husband requests that each of these orders be stayed until an appeal can be resolved, and that Husband’s 50% of the sale proceeds from the Scottsdale house ($667,650 based on the $1,335,300 value per the court’s January 8, 2025 ruling), be held in a restricted account as collateral for the bond. This total collateral and offset of $83[1],998.50 ($667,650 + $164,348.50) should be more than sufficient as a bond pending appeal.

Using that formula, the superior court ordered husband to post $164,348.50 (or less than 20%) of his proposed supersedeas bond and then ordered wife to post $667,650 (or more than 80%) of the proposed supersedeas bond.

¶13 But the superior court then went a step further. The superior court also credited husband with the $667,650 by reducing the supersedeas bond by that amount in addition to ordering wife to post the $667,650 as part of husband’s supersedeas bond, saying:

Regarding Respondent’s equity in the Scottsdale Home of $667,650, the Court concludes it should have considered this in the bond determination, as the Decree factored this equity into the Sch[i]ckner Judgment. It is the Court’s understanding

4 BILTIS v. BILTIS Decision of the Court

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Related

Hurd v. Hurd
219 P.3d 258 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2009)
Michaelson v. Garr
323 P.3d 1193 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2014)
Schickner v. Schickner
348 P.3d 890 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2015)
Bobrow v. Herrod Ex Rel. County of Maricopa
367 P.3d 84 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 2016)
Kellin v. Hon. lynch/americanwest
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Biltis v. Biltis, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/biltis-v-biltis-arizctapp-2026.