Matter of Marriage of Nickerson

678 P.2d 730, 296 Or. 516, 1984 Ore. LEXIS 1103
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 6, 1984
DocketCA A24809; SC 29875; SC 29958
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 678 P.2d 730 (Matter of Marriage of Nickerson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matter of Marriage of Nickerson, 678 P.2d 730, 296 Or. 516, 1984 Ore. LEXIS 1103 (Or. 1984).

Opinion

*518 ROBERTS, J.

In this dissolution proceeding the trial court decreed that husband is required to pay $100 per month spousal support for one year, $265 per month child support and entered a $20,000 judgment in favor of wife, as a part of the property settlement, with interest at the annual rate of 15 per cent. The judgment was to be paid in three years; the interest to be paid annually. Husband appealed the support awards and the interest rate, but while appeal was pending he also moved in the trial court to modify the decree as to the support payments pursuant to ORS 107.135(1). He requested that spousal support be eliminated and child support be reduced because of a substantial reduction in his income. Wife moved to dismiss his appeal.

The Court of Appeals determined that it was bound by Wilson v. Wilson, 242 Or 201, 407 P2d 898, 408 P2d 940 (1965) and held that by moving to modify, husband necessarily recognized and acquiesced in the decree and waived his right to appeal those provisions of the decree addressing support. The Court of Appeals determined that it could decide the question of the amount of interest because this property division issue was divisible from the support issues. It held that when interest is allowed, it may not exceed the statutory rate, presently nine percent. ORS 82.010(3).

Husband seeks review of the Court of Appeals refusal to consider the award of spousal and child support. Wife seeks review of the court’s decision on the interest. For the reasons below we hold that husband did not waive his right to appeal those portions of the decree he sought to modify during the pendency of the appeal and we affirm the Court of Appeals decision on the statutory interest rate. We consider first whether husband waived the right to appeal issues of support.

We have often held that a litigant may waive the right to appeal if he or she “acquiesces” in the underlying judgment or decree from which appeal is taken. The acts and circumstances that constitute “acquiesence” so as to foreclose an appeal, however, deserve more differentiated analysis. Our cases on waiver by acquiescence are numerous and cover the spectrum of civil matters, including dissolutions. The underlying premise of these cases is that a party should not be able to *519 attack the decree while at the same time relying on it to better his or her position or accept its benefits.

A review of the law of waiver by acquiescence in our dissolution cases is instructive. In Sherman v. Sherman, 89 Or 130, 173 P 572 (1918), we precluded a spouse who accepted alimony payments awarded her under the decree from appealing the decree, stating: “It is well settled in this state that a party cannot accept the benefits of part of a decree or judgment and appeal from the whole of it.” 89 Or at 133. In Carpenter v. Carpenter, 153 Or 584, 56 P2d 305, 57 P2d 1098, 58 P2d 507 (1936), a spouse levied execution on some of the marital property awarded to her by the decree and sold the property. We dismissed her cross appeal and held that “[b]y enforcing a judgment or decree by execution or otherwise a party clearly waives his right to appeal unless the decree is such or the circumstances such that there is no inconsistency between such enforcement and the appeal.” 153 Or at 590. In Isenhart v. Isenhart, 207 Or 365, 296 P2d 927 (1956), a spouse mortgaged her share of property awarded her in the decree. We dismissed her appeal because she had “availed herself of the benefits of the decree which she later sought by her appeal to challenge.” 207 Or at 368. For the same reason, dismissal followed a spouse’s withdrawal of money paid under the decree as attorney fees in Anderson v. Anderson, 232 Or 160, 374 P2d 479 (1962). In all these cases we found acquiescence because the appellants stood to gain something in the form of payments, credit or enforcement of an equitable remedy by virtue of the decree or judgment they later sought to attack on appeal.

There were two opinions in Wilson v. Wilson, supra. In the first, we modified the rule concerning waiver by accepting benefits and held that a spouse’s acceptance of a property settlement payment did not preclude her appeal of child custody matters. In Hofer v. Hofer, 244 Or 88, 415 P2d 753 (1966), the rule was again modified and Anderson was effectively overruled when we held that a spouse’s acceptance of alimony did not preclude her appeal because “no decision which we may render can affect the award of alimony to the appellant’s disadvantage. She has become entitled to it absolutely.” 244 Or at 93. In these cases modifying the rule, we *520 recognized that where an appellant accepted benefits pursuant to a decree, but her appeal did not affect her entitlement to those benefits, she had not “acquiesced.”

We read Sherman, Carpenter, Isenhart, Anderson, Hofer, and the first Wilson opinion, all supra, as standing for the proposition that an appellant cannot accept the benefits of a judgment and also pursue, by appeal, a course which may overthrow the right to those same benefits. Unlike those cases, however, this is not a case in which a party has accepted the benefits of a decree and concurrently prosecuted an appeal which may affect those same rights.

The second opinion after a renewed motion to dismiss in Wilson, the opinion by which the Court of Appeals felt bound, is not readily explained. This case is almost identical to Wilson in its facts. The Wilson court declared that the wife “recognized the binding force of the decree” and “acquiesced” in it by filing a motion to modify the custody provision in the circuit court pending appeal. 242 Or at 205. But in the context of that case, the word “acquiesced” is misleading. The word ascribes an attitude of acceptance or at least resignation to the party whose acts are held to constitute acquiescence, but such an implied attitude is not really material. Whether a party subjectively is satisfied or dissatisfied with a decree, the party may not appeal the decree after taking steps that treat the decree as settling the rights at issue. But the Wilson court failed to consider that once the notice of appeal was filed, the trial court lost jurisdiction and wife’s motion to modify could have availed her nothing. Whatever that motion might signify as to the wife’s subjective assumptions, as a legal step it was a nullity from which no consequences could be drawn. We now believe that our holding in Wilson was incorrect.

In 1965, when Wilson was decided, ORS 19.033(1) provided:

“When the notice of appeal has been served and filed as provided in ORS 19.023

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Bluebook (online)
678 P.2d 730, 296 Or. 516, 1984 Ore. LEXIS 1103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matter-of-marriage-of-nickerson-or-1984.