Puphal v. Puphal

669 P.2d 191, 105 Idaho 302, 1983 Ida. LEXIS 533
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJune 30, 1983
Docket14501
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 669 P.2d 191 (Puphal v. Puphal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Puphal v. Puphal, 669 P.2d 191, 105 Idaho 302, 1983 Ida. LEXIS 533 (Idaho 1983).

Opinions

BAKES, Justice.

Kenneth Puphal, the plaintiff appellant, was granted a divorce from Kathleen Puphal, the defendant respondent, upon his motion for partial summary judgment and, on June 9, 1980, a trial was held on the issues of property division and support.

In a memorandum decision filed on August 12, 1980, the district court awarded certain items of personal property to each party. The court also awarded appellant his future pension rights in the amount of $23,692.40, and to offset that award, awarded an equal amount to respondent from the funds that would be generated from the sale of their house. The court ordered that the balance of the proceeds of the house, after payment of the mortgage, closing costs and attorney fees for each party, be placed in an account to be used for the care and maintenance of respondent, who was being cared for in a nursing home at the time of the award at a cost of approximately $1,200 per month. Respondent was to receive $1,400 per month from this account.

[304]*304Appellant, having been served with a copy of the memorandum decision prior to its file date, filed a motion for reconsideration on August 8,1980, alleging error in the court’s memorandum decision in several particulars. The court heard oral arguments on appellant’s motion for reconsideration on August 20, 1980. The minutes contained in the record indicate that at the conclusion of the hearing the court stated that “it will go over the matter and get something to counsel.”

The district court thereafter filed a Decree of Property Distribution on November 18, 1980. Although the court did not formally address appellant’s motion for reconsideration in its decree, the decree incorporated a substantial number of the items requested by appellant in his motion for reconsideration.

The house was subsequently sold and the account for respondent’s care established with the balance of the proceeds. On April 23,1981, respondent filed a Motion for Modification of Divorce Decree. At the hearing on said motion the district court stated that it would treat the motion as a motion to increase the alimony award. In orders dated August 14 and 26,1981, the court rejected respondent’s request to order appellant to pay $600 per month to a conservator but, noting a depletion of the original fund and perceiving a need for appellant to “begin to gear up for future obligations,” ordered the appellant to start paying “$200 per month from his salary for the future support and maintenance of defendant” which amount was to be held and not distributed “until other funds are depleted.”

On November 25, 1981, appellant filed an amended motion for reconsideration in which he sought to amend the original motion for reconsideration that had been filed on August 8,1980. Appellant’s motion also sought relief from or, in the alternative, modification or clarification of the judgment and previous orders of the court, citing I.R.C.P. 59 and 60(b). Respondent then filed another Motion to Modify Decree of Divorce, and the motions were consolidated for oral argument, held on January 12, 1982.

The district court filed an order denying appellant’s amended motion for clarification and motion for relief from or modification of the judgment and previous orders, and appellant brought the instant appeal.1 For the reasons addressed below, we affirm.

We note initially that respondent filed a motion to dismiss this appeal on grounds that generally relate to the timeliness of appellant’s motions for reconsideration and relief from judgment and to the timeliness of the appeal to this Court. Respondent, in her brief in support of the motion to dismiss, argues that more than forty-two days had passed since the entry of the decree of property distribution, and that appellant was therefore precluded from bringing this appeal under I.A.R. 14(a). However, appeal was taken not from the November 18, 1980, decree, but from the court’s January 12, 1982, order denying appellant’s amended, motion for reconsideration and motion for relief from or modification of judgment. Appellant filed his notice of appeal on February 17, 1982, which was within forty-two days of the court’s January 12, 1982, decision on the motion. I.A.R. 14(a). Therefore, the appeal to this Court is timely as to the issues raised in the motions which were decided on January 12, 1982, and the respondent’s motion to dismiss is denied.

On appeal, appellant alleges that the district court erred in denying his amended motion for reconsideration. Appellant’s [305]*305amended motion for reconsideration sought to amend the original motion to reconsider filed on August 8, 1980, to allege that the award of alimony or maintenance in the court’s original memorandum decision filed August 12, 1980, was illegal and improper. Appellant contends that the court took the original motion to reconsider under advisement at the conclusion of the hearing held on August 20, 1980, but that the court never issued an order expressly addressing or resolving the issues raised in the motion for reconsideration. Therefore, appellant argues, the motion was still under advisement some fifteen months later and, as such, was subject to amendment. We disagree.

In his original motion to reconsider the court’s memorandum decision, filed on August 8, 1980, appellant specified twelve alleged errors and items and requested the court to reconsider them. After oral arguments on the motion, the court filed its Decree of Property Distribution on November 18, 1980. The decree incorporated substantially all but two of appellant’s requested changes. The modifications appearing in the decree of property distribution that were consistent with those requested in appellant’s motion for reconsideration included: a revision of the court’s award of certain items of personal property; a recalculation of the total amount of personal property awarded to each party; a decrease in the respondent’s share of the proceeds of the sale of the house by the amount her award of personal property exceeded that awarded to appellant; giving appellant a credit of $700 per month for alimony for income tax purposes, reflecting his share of the community proceeds of the sale of the house being paid for respondent’s support, and an additional credit for the amount of insurance premiums appellant was required to pay on a policy maintained for respondent.2

While the court’s decree of distribution filed on November 18,1980, did not explicitly mention appellant’s motion to reconsider, it incorporated a substantial part of the changes requested by appellant in his motion. Furthermore, the decree appears to have been prepared by appellant’s attorneys, apparently pursuant to the district court’s request in its memorandum decision that “counsel for plaintiff ... draw an appropriate judgment.” Thus, we conclude that the November 18,1980, decree of property distribution was intended to and did constitute a fully adequate order on appellant’s original motion to reconsider the memorandum decision. Cf. City of Coeur d’Alene v. Ochs, 96 Idaho 268, 526 P.2d 1104 (1974) (where judgment fully and finally settles all issues in a case and jurisdiction is retained only to assure compliance with its terms, it is a “final judgment”); Swinehart v. Turner, 36 Idaho 450, 211 P. 558 (1922) (real character of order is to be judged by its contents and substance). Having been disposed of by the decree of distribution, the appellant’s motion to reconsider was not subject to later amendment.

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Bluebook (online)
669 P.2d 191, 105 Idaho 302, 1983 Ida. LEXIS 533, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/puphal-v-puphal-idaho-1983.