Theresia Renee Breen f/k/a Theresia Renee Black v. Jamie Lee Black

2015 WY 96, 353 P.3d 725, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 111, 2015 WL 4503931
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 24, 2015
DocketS-14-0273
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2015 WY 96 (Theresia Renee Breen f/k/a Theresia Renee Black v. Jamie Lee Black) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Theresia Renee Breen f/k/a Theresia Renee Black v. Jamie Lee Black, 2015 WY 96, 353 P.3d 725, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 111, 2015 WL 4503931 (Wyo. 2015).

Opinion

DAVIS, Justice.

[T1] Theresia Renee Breen appeals from a district court order holding her in contempt for failure to reimburse her ex-husband Jamie Black for her share of medical expenses *727 he incurred for their four minor daughters. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

ISSUES

[12] Breen raises four issues that we restate as follows:

I. Did the district court err by awarding medical expenses incurred by Black prior to an August 8, 2012 hearing, but which he did not assert as a compulsory counterclaim in the action brought by Breen that led to that hearing?
II. Did clear and convincing evidence support the district court's finding that Breen's failure to pay her share of the medical expenses was willful?
III. Did the district court's alleged over-caleulation of the amount Breen owed Black transform the civil contempt order into a punitive criminal contempt order?
IV. Did the district court err in holding Breen in contempt for failing to communicate and cooperate with Black?

FACTS

[13] Breen and Black divorced in late 2008. Breen received primary custody of the couple's four daughters, subject to Black's liberal visitation rights. He was to pay support and provide medical insurance for the girls, and he was also to pay any deductibles required by the insurance policy. The decree required Breen and Black to split any medical costs remaining after deductibles were paid and the insurer satisfied its obligations under the policy equally. To implement that requirement, the decree required each of them to provide the other any documents showing charges by the girls' medical services providers, documents indicating that those charges had been submitted to the insurer, and proof of the amounts paid on those charges by both the insurer and the other party.

[14] On March 2, 2012, Breen filed a "Motion for Judgment for Unpaid Child Support, Medical Expenses and Other Financial Obligations" and several attached exhibits. She claimed that between January 12, 2010 and February 26, 2012, she paid for medical services for her daughters in addition to what their insurance company had paid, and that Black had not reimbursed her for his $4,608.45 share of those expenses. Breen's Exhibits D and E contained bills, statements, insurance documents, and a summary spreadsheet supporting that claim.

[T5] Black denied those allegations in his March 27 response to Breen's motion, then pled the following as an affirmative defense:

Defendant pleads the affirmative defense that Defendant owes Plaintiff more in medical expenses of the minor children of the parties than is claimed in Paragraph 6 of the Motion for Unpaid Child Support, Medical Expenses and Other Financial Obligations of Defendant.

The district court held a hearing on Breen's motion on August 7 and 8, 2012. 1

[T6] At the hearing, Black put on no evidence supporting a claim for Breen's failure to reimburse him for medical expenses he had paid. When the court questioned him about Breen's claim for reimbursement, Black responded:

[There are a number of those bills that I may be responsible for, but there are also a number of those bills where I actually have the cancelled check from myself where I paid that bill. So I think there are some mathematical errors in the figures.

He and his attorney informed the court that Black had no objection to paying his half of any legitimate medical bills presented by Breen, and he eventually agreed to pay the entire $4,608.45 requested in her motion.

[17] The district court entered a "Judgment and Order Establishing Child Support Arrearage, Penalties and Unpaid Medical Expenses" for that amount on October 15, *728 2012. Black did not appeal from that judgment and order.

[T8] On March 8, 2014, however, Black filed a motion and accompanying affidavit seeking to have Breen held in civil contempt for failing to pay her required half of an undisclosed amount of their daughters' medical expenses that were not paid under his health insurance policy. Breen did not include her response to that motion in the record transmitted to this Court, but her attorney set out her position during the show cause hearing on June 2, 2014.

[19] Counsel argued that the August 8, 2012 hearing and the subsequent order on Breen's claim for reimbursement for her medical services expenditures disposed of any claims Black may have had for his similar expenditures in the period between the divorce decree and either that hearing or the latest expense included in Breen's claim. That is, she suggested that Black's failure to raise such claims arising during that period in the earlier proceedings barred him from raising them later because they were res judicata. Black's claim involved 160 medical bills, 75 of which related to services provided to his daughters more than a month before the August 2012 hearing.

[110] The district court ultimately rejected Breen's argument that the 2012 action "wrapped up" what Black owed her and what she owed him. Without further explanation, the court determined "it only covered the one way expenditures that she had paid, that she deserved reimbursement and that is all that judgment covered."

[T11l] The court also noted that Breen had not challenged the legitimacy of the medical bills introduced by Black or the fact that he had paid them, and that she conceded she was obligated to reimburse Black for half of those costs. The couft viewed the hearing as being primarily concerned with Breen's reason for not making payments against that obligation earlier.

[112] In contrast to Breen's assertions that Black had not apprised her of what she owed, Black and his new wife testified at some length about their efforts to provide Breen with that information and to obtain some response from her as to her intentions. They tried phone calls, e-mail, text messages, and regular and certified mail, All were unavailing, and were met with either no response or responses that avoided the medical expenses issue entirely. Her efforts at avoidance extended to filing allegedly false stalking charges against Black.

[T13] The court held Breen in contempt, noting that Black and his current spouse had attempted to provide Breen with copies of medical bills and proof of payment by Black and the insurance carrier. It pointed out that Breen had evaded those efforts in contravention of provisions of the decree requiring the parties to cooperate with each other and to act in good faith.

[T14]) The district court entered judgment against Breen for the $6,075.13 it determined she owed Black. It also provided that she could purge herself of contempt by paying that amount in monthly installments of not less than $500 within twelve months of the hearing.

DISCUSSION

Compulsory Counterclaims

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2015 WY 96, 353 P.3d 725, 2015 Wyo. LEXIS 111, 2015 WL 4503931, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/theresia-renee-breen-fka-theresia-renee-black-v-jamie-lee-black-wyo-2015.