Jeffries v. Jeffries

434 N.W.2d 585, 1989 S.D. LEXIS 12, 1989 WL 1262
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 11, 1989
Docket16096
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 434 N.W.2d 585 (Jeffries v. Jeffries) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jeffries v. Jeffries, 434 N.W.2d 585, 1989 S.D. LEXIS 12, 1989 WL 1262 (S.D. 1989).

Opinions

MILLER, Justice.

In this appeal we hold that the trial court did not err in (1) refusing to specifically find that the parties to the divorce action enjoyed a confidential relationship while negotiating a property settlement, and (2) refusing to set aside a default divorce decree.

FACTS

Carolee and Lawrence Jeffries were married in Wyoming in 1965. During the course of their marriage, which produced three children, they encountered marital difficulties. The two most serious occasions prior to their divorce were in 1975 and 1978, at which time they temporarily separated. The couple reconciled after the 1978 separation, but executed a post-nuptial agreement concerning their respective property rights should either of them file for a divorce in the future. The need for a post-nuptial agreement was prompted by Carolee’s excessive spending habits.

In August 1986, Carolee indicated that she was planning to leave Lawrence. Lawrence then retained attorney Robert A. Amundson (Amundson) to represent him in the divorce proceedings.1 Carolee did not retain counsel, although she knew that she was free to do so.2 Rather, Carolee decided to negotiate a property settlement agreement with Lawrence without professional assistance. She consulted with Amundson, who advised her that he could not represent her in the divorce proceeding and that she had a right to retain a lawyer of her own choosing. However, during this consultation, Amundson answered Caro-lee’s questions regarding the custody of the couple’s children. Later, Amundson advised both Lawrence and Carolee that they could attempt to work out a property settlement and custody agreement on their own, reduce it to writing, and bring it to him to be formally drafted.

Lawrence and Carolee then finalized an agreement regarding the disposition of their property. The agreement, which was handwritten by Carolee, provided for alimony, custody and visitation of the children, and distribution of the couple’s property, including payment of all marital bills by Lawrence. Amundson did not participate in these negotiations. The agreement, in Carolee’s handwriting, acknowledged the existence of all of the couple’s property, including Lawrence’s securities, inherited property,3 savings and pension plans. Essentially, Carolee indicated that she wanted only certain items of personal property and one-half of the value of the couple’s marital home, which was valued at $80,000. The value of her one-half interest in the home ($40,000) was reduced by Lawrence’s agreement to pay Carolee’s accumulated debts and to provide for her purchase of a new automobile.

The handwritten agreement was presented to Amundson, who prepared a formal property settlement agreement which was executed by the parties. Carolee acknowledged that the formal property settlement agreement was consistent with her handwritten version. She also stated that she had read and understood the agreement’s terms. The trial court later entered a decree of divorce incorporating the settlement agreement formulated by the parties.

Approximately four months later, Caro-lee moved that the decree of divorce be set aside, pursuant to SDCL 15-6~60(b), on the [587]*587grounds that Lawrence induced her into signing the property settlement agreement “by making representations which were fraudulent or misrepresentations and by his misconduct.” After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the motion and she appeals from that holding.

ISSUES PRESENTED

Carolee has specifically stated the issues as follows:

I
The lower court erred by refusing wife’s proposed finding that the relationship between the parties was a confidential relationship.
II
Where wife was not represented by an attorney and where the parties occupied a confidential relationship, the court erred by (1) imposing a burden of investigation on wife, (2) failing to impose any duty of disclosure on husband, and (3) by failing to find that the agreement must be fair and reasonable and free from fraud.
III
The court also erred by failing to find other examples of fraud or mistake legally sufficient to justify setting aside the decree of divorce.

We observe that the issues as propounded by Carolee use a “shotgun approach” to attack the entire spectrum of the trial court’s order. A fair analysis of the legal arguments presented in Carolee’s briefs convinces us that the primary, viable issues center around the trial court’s refusal to (1) sign her proposed findings that a confidential relationship existed between the parties, and (2) find fraud on the part of Lawrence during the negotiation processes.

DECISION

I

WHETHER LAWRENCE AND CARO-LEE ENJOYED A CONFIDENTIAL RELATIONSHIP DURING THE NEGOTIATION OF THE PROPERTY SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.

We note that the first time this issue was specifically presented to the trial court was in Carolee’s ten-page document entitled “Defendant’s (Carolee’s) Objections to Plaintiff’s Proposed Findings and Conclusions and Defendant’s Additional Proposals”. Therein, at paragraph XVIII, she objected to Lawrence’s proposed Conclusion of Law IV “based upon the following findings and conclusions which are hereby proposed by (Carolee):

A. Husband and wife enjoyed a confidential relationship.
B. Husband had a duty to wife under that confidential relationship.
C. That duty was fiduciary or confidential or of a trust nature.”

Those subsections were followed by subsections D through R, which generally assailed the property settlement. The trial court endorsed the document as “denied.”

None of Carolee’s proposals are specifically designated as findings or conclusions and it is difficult to ascertain Carolee’s intent in that regard. Some are obviously findings, some are conclusions and some are mixed.

Nowhere in the record does it appear that Carolee raised the confidentiality issue or presented it specifically to the trial court. Although Carolee may have technically preserved the issue, the trial court was certainly placed at a disadvantage and a meaningful appellate review is clearly hampered. We discourage such shotgun tactics.

Carolee argues to us that a confidential relationship existed between her and Lawrence which increased Lawrence’s duties of disclosure and fairness with respect to the property settlement negotiations and the resulting agreement. She asserts that this relationship placed a duty upon Lawrence to disclose the nature and value of all of the couple’s assets.

While it is generally true that a husband and wife do enjoy a confidential [588]*588relationship, see, e.g., SDCL 25-2-10,4 we do not believe that such a relationship existed here.

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Jeffries v. Jeffries
434 N.W.2d 585 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
434 N.W.2d 585, 1989 S.D. LEXIS 12, 1989 WL 1262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jeffries-v-jeffries-sd-1989.