Trevor Paul Fairbanks v. Cara Eileen Fox, f/k/a Cara Fox Fairbanks

CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 17, 2022
DocketS17994
StatusUnpublished

This text of Trevor Paul Fairbanks v. Cara Eileen Fox, f/k/a Cara Fox Fairbanks (Trevor Paul Fairbanks v. Cara Eileen Fox, f/k/a Cara Fox Fairbanks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Trevor Paul Fairbanks v. Cara Eileen Fox, f/k/a Cara Fox Fairbanks, (Ala. 2022).

Opinion

NOTICE Memorandum decisions of this court do not create legal precedent. A party wishing to cite such a decision in a brief or at oral argument should review Alaska Appellate Rule 214(d).

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ALASKA

TREVOR PAUL FAIRBANKS, ) ) Supreme Court No. S-17994 Appellant, ) ) Superior Court No. 3AN-19-05436 CI v. ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION CARA EILEEN FOX, f/k/a Cara Fox ) AND JUDGMENT* Fairbanks, ) ) No. 1912 – August 17, 2022 Appellee. ) )

Appeal from the Superior Court of the State of Alaska, Third Judicial District, Anchorage, Yvonne Lamoureux, Judge.

Appearances: Trevor Paul Fairbanks, pro se, Anchorage, Appellant. Kara A. Nyquist, Anchorage, for Appellee.

Before: Winfree, Chief Justice, Maassen, Carney, and Borghesan, Justices. [Henderson, Justice, not participating.]

I. INTRODUCTION In this divorce case a man appeals issues related to the division of property and the child support award. With regard to the property division, we conclude: (1) the superior court’s findings are insufficient to support its decision about the husband’s contribution of separate assets to the construction of the marital home; (2) the husband waived an argument that amounts paid toward his wife’s premarital student debt should have been added to her share of the marital estate; (3) the husband did not waive an

* Entered under Alaska Appellate Rule 214. argument that his wife should share the post-separation costs of the children’s health insurance; (4) the superior court properly weighed the parties’ respective ages and earning capacities when dividing the marital estate; and (5) it was unreasonable to weigh the husband’s access to free health care in his favor when dividing the marital estate while also requiring him to purchase private health insurance. With regard to the child support order, we conclude that all of the husband’s arguments are waived because they were not timely raised in the superior court. We therefore affirm the child support order, but we remand the property division order for reconsideration of the husband’s contribution of premarital assets to the marital home, reconsideration of the division of the marital estate, if necessary, and consideration of whether the parties are required to share the post-separation cost of the children’s health insurance. II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS A. Facts Trevor Fairbanks and Cara Fox began dating around 2006 and married in 2008. A prenuptial agreement provided that in the event of divorce “[e]ach party shall separately retain all of his or her rights in his or her separate property owned at the time of execution of this Agreement.” Property would be assumed to be marital absent “clear and convincing proof” it was separate. Any increase in value or appreciation of separate property during the marriage was to be shared, while commingled property and the marital residence would remain separate. The prenuptial agreement also listed each party’s separate property at the time of marriage. Trevor’s included “Land 5500 Penny Circle,” two life insurance policies with a total value of $65,000, and three bank accounts with a total value of $226,000. Cara’s separate property included about $20,960 in student loan debt and a home valued at $134,000.

-2- 1912 The Penny Circle lot had been purchased by Trevor in 2007, a year before the marriage. According to Cara, the couple “planned to build a dream home together,” and together they found the land and designed the home. Construction began in the summer of 2008 while the couple lived in the house belonging to Cara. They agreed that she “would be the sole provider while [Trevor] would do the majority of the building.” He worked on the house full-time for a while, and Cara assisted with some labor. In the summer of 2010 they moved into their new home and construction was completed about two years later. Their two children were born in 2010 and 2012. They all lived in the Penny Circle home until the couple separated in March 2018, when Cara moved out. She filed for divorce in March 2019. B. Proceedings Cara and Trevor eventually stipulated to joint custody of the children, reserving issues of property, child support, and the children’s health insurance for trial. Both Cara and Trevor testified at trial about the funds used to build the Penny Circle home. Cara estimated that they spent between $250,000 and $300,000 on construction. Trevor claimed he paid for most of it with his premarital bank accounts and by cashing out his life insurance plans. Cara agreed that, “[t]o the best of [her] knowledge,” Trevor depleted his premarital savings to build the home.1 She testified she did not “know specifically” what happened to the money from one of his life insurance accounts, but her “guess would be that he used that toward the building of” the Penny Circle home. She agreed that her own financial contribution was smaller, between $50,000 and $66,000. She testified that she refinanced the mortgage on her premarital home, receiving about $9,400 which the couple spent on the Penny Circle home.

1 Cara also testified that the couple paid for the construction “as [they] went and, initially, a lot of that money came from . . . the sale of [Trevor’s] house and the money that he had in savings from that but then it also came from [her] income.” -3- 1912 The parties also testified about the family’s health insurance. Cara wanted Trevor to continue paying for private insurance for the children through his employer; she agreed to share the cost of future premiums. She argued that retaining that private insurance would allow the children to continue seeing the same pediatrician they had always seen. Trevor wanted to cancel the private insurance in favor of coverage through the Indian Health Service (IHS). He also asked that he be credited with half the insurance premium costs since separation. The superior court issued detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law. First, the court valued the Penny Circle property at $704,000 and found that, pursuant to the parties’ prenuptial agreement, the land remained Trevor’s separate property but the $534,000 increase in value due to construction of the home was marital. The court found that Trevor intended “that the appreciation of the Penny Circle land following the signing of the prenuptial agreement be part of the marital estate,” that Trevor’s “testimony at trial was consistent with the doctrine of active appreciation,” and that Trevor “agree[d] that the Penny Circle home, minus the value of the land at the time of marriage[,] . . . is marital property.” Second, the trial court found it could not credit Trevor for contributions of separate property to the Penny Circle construction because there was “insufficient evidence . . . that such funds were spent for the construction of the home.” The court found that Cara “contributed at least $65,837 from her income” to construction costs, that Cara had refinanced her home and put $9,404 in equity toward construction costs, and that the couple had repaid a loan from Trevor’s parents with marital funds. Third, the court declined to credit Trevor with the cost of insuring Cara post-separation “in light of the fact that the cost of health insurance was for the entire family, at no extra cost for including Cara . . . specifically.” And Trevor “ha[d] only

-4- 1912 recently registered with the Indian Health Service.” Cara was required to purchase her own insurance going forward. Fourth, the court found that a 50/50 split of marital property was fair and equitable. The court noted that Trevor’s annual salary was about $90,000, Cara’s was about $95,000, and they had “comparable earning capacities.” The court concluded that “given Trevor[’s] better financial position with no debt and other separate property . . .

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Bluebook (online)
Trevor Paul Fairbanks v. Cara Eileen Fox, f/k/a Cara Fox Fairbanks, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trevor-paul-fairbanks-v-cara-eileen-fox-fka-cara-fox-fairbanks-alaska-2022.