Marriage of Roney CA2/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 16, 2013
DocketB233870
StatusUnpublished

This text of Marriage of Roney CA2/3 (Marriage of Roney CA2/3) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marriage of Roney CA2/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 5/16/13 Marriage of Roney CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

In re Marriage of SONIA and STEPHEN B233870 RONEY. _____________________________________ (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BD443374) SONIA RONEY,

Respondent,

v.

STEPHEN RONEY,

Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Frederick Shaller, Judge. Affirmed. Stephen Roney, in pro. per., for Appellant. Rombro & Associates, S. Roger Rombro and Melinda A. Manley for Respondent. _________________________

In this marital dissolution action, Stephen Roney (Husband), acting in propria persona, appeals from the judgment on reserved issues entered after the dissolution of his marriage to Sonia Necochea Roney (Wife). Husband challenges the court’s characterization of four parcels of real property that he claimed to have owned before the date of marriage or acquired with his separate property during the marriage. Husband’s principal contention on appeal is that but for rulings denying his request for a trial continuance and excluding recently discovered checking account registers, which he maintained Wife had withheld during discovery, he would have been able to establish through direct tracing that the four parcels of real property were his separate property.1 We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND2 Husband is a certified public accountant and was licensed to practice from 1972 to approximately 2001. Husband and Wife married on December 28, 1988. Wife petitioned for dissolution of their marriage on April 3, 2006. Judgment of dissolution was entered on March 1, 2010, as to status only with jurisdiction reserved over all other issues. In phase one of the trial on reserved issues, the trial court determined the date of separation was March 30, 2006. The second phase of the trial on reserved issues addressed the characterization of property. 1. The Properties Before marriage, Husband owned four properties: (1) a shopping center referred to as “Imperial King Center” (IKC Property) in Norwalk, (2) a duplex commonly known as 463, 477 25th Street (25th Street Property) in Hermosa Beach, (3) real property commonly known as 2010 Blossom Lane in Redondo Beach (Blossom Lane Property), and (4) real property commonly known as 22 Hermosa Avenue in Hermosa Beach

1 Husband refers throughout his brief to “four pieces” of real property, but he does not further describe the property. 2 Our recitation of the facts is limited to matters in the record. We disregard facts not supported by record citations and attempts to reargue the facts as Husband would have them. (In re Marriage of Davenport (2011) 194 Cal.App.4th 1507, 1531.)

(Hermosa Avenue Property). The mortgages on the IKC Property and the 25th Street Property were paid during the marriage. Three of these four properties have been sold. The 25th Street Property was sold in 2008, after the date of separation, and the proceeds were held in a trust account. The Blossom Lane Property and the Hermosa Avenue Property were sold during the marriage. Husband testified that he used the sale proceeds from the Hermosa Avenue Property to buy a Jack in the Box restaurant in Texas (Texas Property). He held title to the Texas Property and testified he paid off the mortgage with his separate property. Husband and Wife held title as joint tenants to a property commonly referred to as 1129 11th Street in Hermosa Beach (11th Street Property). Husband admitted the 11th Street Property was a community estate asset, with the exception of $102,000 of his separate property that he invested from the sale proceeds of the Blossom Lane Property. The trial court concluded Husband failed to meet his burden to directly trace his separate property interest in the properties. Based upon the evidence presented at trial, the community estate had a pro-tanto interest in the IKC Property, the 25th Street Property sale proceeds, the Blossom Lane Property, and the Hermosa Avenue Property as stated in In re Marriage of Moore (1980) 28 Cal.3d 366, and In re Marriage of Marsden (1982) 130 Cal.App.3d 426 (Moore-Marsden formula). The trial court characterized the Texas Property and the 11th Street Property as community property, subject to reimbursement pursuant to Family Code section 2640 for Husband’s separate property contribution. Husband contends his failure of proof relates to a discovery dispute with Wife over missing checking account registers from his separate bank accounts that he needed to show he used his separate property during the marriage to pay the mortgages on the properties.

2. Ongoing Discovery Dispute Over Checking Account Registers Husband sought to continue the trial on the reserved issues for a number of reasons, including the parties’ ongoing discovery dispute over missing checking account registers. Both parties accused the other one of hiding or stealing these documents.3 a. Wife’s Request for Production and Motion to Compel In March 2008, Wife propounded discovery seeking documents to support Husband’s separate property claims to assets acquired before marriage, during marriage, or since separation to which Husband contended were not commingled with community property. Dissatisfied with Husband’s document production, Wife moved to compel. In opposition to the motion, the sworn declaration of Husband’s counsel stated: “Respondent delivered to my office, all of the records in his possession related to his financial conditions. These records include, tax returns for 19 years, bank records, rental agreements, loan applications and other documents . . . . I allowed Petitioner, personally, to enter my office and to copy whatever records . . . she chose.” Husband’s counsel also personally delivered two full boxes of business records in response to the document request. The motion to compel was granted. The order states that if Husband seeks to augment discovery, he must provide discovery on or before 45 days from the date of trial. If husband augmented discovery, he was ordered to provide a statement under penalty of perjury explaining “why the documents sought to augment his responses were not provided in response” to the document request.

3 Husband has not prepared an adequate record. A party may choose to act as his own attorney. “ ‘[S]uch a party is to be treated like any other party and is entitled to the same, but no greater consideration than other litigants and attorneys. [Citation.]’ [Citation.] Thus, as is the case with attorneys, pro. per. litigants must follow correct rules of procedure. [Citations.]” (Nwosu v. Uba (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 1229, 1247.)

b. Husband’s Request for Production and Motions to Compel In February 2010, Husband filed a motion to compel production of documents after propounding a request for missing checking account registers. In December 2009, Husband requested “[h]andwritten check registers that were prepared by Stephen Roney for account numbers 00633-3988 and 00639-05663 also known as Bank of America general account and Bank of America Imperial King Center account for the period of January 1, 1989 through December 31, 2001.” Wife eventually responded to the request, stating: “Documents have been produced pursuant to request for production, set number two, and have been supplemented.” Husband believed this response was incomplete.

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