Wight v. Wight

2011 UT App 424, 268 P.3d 861, 697 Utah Adv. Rep. 22, 2011 Utah App. LEXIS 426, 2011 WL 6225372
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedDecember 15, 2011
DocketNo. 20100665-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 2011 UT App 424 (Wight v. Wight) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wight v. Wight, 2011 UT App 424, 268 P.3d 861, 697 Utah Adv. Rep. 22, 2011 Utah App. LEXIS 426, 2011 WL 6225372 (Utah Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

McHUGH, Associate Presiding Judge:

11 John Andrew Wight (Husband) appeals various rulings from the trial court's third amended divorce decree (Third Amended Order). We affirm on all issues, with the exception of the trial court's ruling on the allocation of the carpet allowance, which we remand for additional findings of fact and conclusions of law.

BACKGROUND

12 Husband and Wife married in April 2001. The couple had a daughter in 2002 and a son in 2004. In August 2005, Wife moved out of the marital home with the children and filed for divorce. The domestic relations commissioner entered a temporary order on March 17, 2006, awarding Husband and Wife joint legal custody of the children while granting Wife temporary physical custody. Husband's parent time was to be determined by statute with the modification that he was granted two midweek visitations instead of one. The commissioner also ordered that Husband be responsible for the mortgage payments on the marital home, even though he obtained a new residence closer to Wife and the children three months after they left the marital home.

T3 The parties continued to litigate issues surrounding custody and care of the children, parent time, and the marital home for the next few years. One major dispute between Husband and Wife centered around day care. After she obtained full-time employment in October 2006, Wife enrolled the children at a day care facility called Adventure Time. Husband paid his share of the expenses for Adventure Time until he lost his job in August 2007.. Husband claims that he was available to take care of the children as an alternative to day care until May 2009, but that Wife would not let him do so. Husband did provide full-time care for the children between June and August 2007, while he was on medical disability leave.

T4 Despite their disputes, Husband and Wife were able to stipulate to a joint eustody parenting arrangement on March 19, 2008. The stipulation provided that the parties would alternate weekends with the children pursuant to the governing statute, but that Husband's parent time would continue until Monday morning when he would be responsible for taking the children to school. Additionally, during weeks when Husband did not have the children for the weekend, he would have them overnight on Thursday nights, and then again on the Tuesday night following the weekend the children spent with Wife. The parties adhered to the statute with regard to a holiday schedule and for extended parent time. On October 1, 2008, the trial court acknowledged Husband's changed employment situation and modified Husband's child support obligation to $273 per month. However, the court did not retroactively modify Husband's support obligation back to August 2007, the point when he lost his job.

T5 One area of continuing disagreement was the allocation of expenses relating to the marital home. As noted, within months of Wife's move from the marital home with the [865]*865children, Husband also vacated the home so that he could live closer to the children's new residence. Nevertheless, the trial court ordered Husband to make the mortgage payments on the marital home. To cover the cost of the mortgage, Husband leased the marital home from March 2006 through April 2008, but he was unable to collect rent sufficient to cover the mortgage payments. Before the sale of the home, Husband collected $35,550 in rent and paid $48,974 in mortgage payments on the property, while Wife paid $3,894.47 in mortgage payments. The home was sold on October 27, 2008, and the proceeds totaled $42,312.26.

T6 The issues surrounding Husband and Wife's divorcee decree went to trial in the spring and summer of 2009 and involved six days of hearings and negotiations between the parties. During the second day of trial, April 16, 2009, the parties reached a partial stipulation regarding parent time, which was essentially the same parent time schedule as they had previously designated at the March 19, 2008 hearing. On the third day of trial, April 29, 2009, Husband and Wife reached a partial stipulation on financial issues. Husband and Wife agreed that child support would be paid pursuant to statute and that the proceeds from the marital home would be divided equally, but that Husband would have $5,234.07 deducted from his half of the proceeds and added to Wife's half to cover child support obligations and that Wife would have $6,000 deducted from her half of the proceeds and added to Husband's half to resolve the marital debt. Reserved for the trial court were issues of whether Wife should be reimbursed for the $3,894.47 she made in mortgage payments on the marital home, whether the contributions Husband made to the marital home should be split equally, and how a $7,000 carpet allowance would be allocated. Also reserved were issues surrounding whether Adventure Time would continue to be used by Wife when day care was needed, whether ACAFS Family Academy (ACAFS) would remain the location to exchange the children, what time Husband's parent time would begin and end when the children were not in school, and whether day care expenses would be reassessed by the court.

T7 The parties met for a fourth day of trial on May 6, 2009. At that time, the parties submitted a proposed order memorializing the above financial stipulation, and they also submitted a series of stipulated facts. The fifth day of trial occurred on May 20, 2009, and at that time the trial court issued an order that incorporated the parties' stipulations with regard to both financial and parent time issues. On July 16, 2009, at the end of the sixth day of trial, the trial court ruled from the bench as to all other remaining disputes between Husband and Wife. The minute entry from that day indicates that the trial court appointed a special master to resolve parent time disputes between the parties, ordered the parties to continue to use ACAFS, awarded Wife $5,000 for day care costs at Adventure Time, permitted the use of Adventure Time going forward, denied Husband's request that Wife pay half of the mortgage payments, divided the remaining costs surrounding the home equally between the parties, and awarded Wife some of her attorney fees because of Husband's behavior during the years of litigation.

18 Wife's counsel drafted a proposed order based on the trial court's rulings at the July 16, 2009 hearing. Husband objected to the order, claiming that it mischaracterized the trial court's ruling by using inappropriate language, misconstrued the use of ACAFS, set pick-up and drop-off times for nonschool days that were inconsistent with the statute and thus not contemplated by the court, and imposed the cost of the full $7,000 carpet allowance on Husband. Husband also filed an objection to the form of the proposed special master order. The trial court overruled all of Husband's objections on February 2, 2010.

T 9 On March 22, 2010, the trial court met with counsel for both parties and then issued an amended findings and order on April 1, 2010. Husband moved to amend the amended findings and order on the ground that the trial court signed the wrong version of the proposed order and again objected to the special master order. Apparently in response to Husband's objections, the trial court issued a second amended findings and [866]*866order and a new special master order on June 4, 2010. Husband's counsel then withdrew.

{10 Acting on his own behalf, Husband moved to alter or amend the second amended findings and order on two main grounds.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2011 UT App 424, 268 P.3d 861, 697 Utah Adv. Rep. 22, 2011 Utah App. LEXIS 426, 2011 WL 6225372, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wight-v-wight-utahctapp-2011.