Bailey v. Bailey

548 P.3d 519

2024 UT App 51

Amy L. BAILEY, Appellee,

v.Danny Ray BAILEY, Appellant

No. 20220534-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed April 11, 2024

Second District Court, Farmington Department, The Honorable Michael D. DiReda, No. 094701582

Julie J. Nelson, Attorney for Appellant

Brian E. Arnold, Attorney for Appellee

Judge Ryan M. Harris authored this Opinion, in which Judges Ryan D. Tenney and Amy J. Oliver concurred.

Opinion

HARRIS, Judge:

¶1 In 2019, nine years after her divorce, Amy L. Bailey (Amy) filed a petition to modify the child support provisions of the divorce decree, asserting that her ex-husband Danny Ray Bailey’s (Danny)¹ income had significantly increased. The matter proceeded to trial, where the district court sanctioned Danny for noncompliance with pretrial disclosure obligations. Among other sanctions, the court prohibited Danny from presenting any evidence, and from refuting any evidence Amy presented, regarding his income. At the conclusion of this rather one-sided trial, the court made findings and conclusions regarding Danny’s income that Danny believes are inaccurate.

¶2 Danny now appeals those findings and conclusions, as well as the court’s underlying sanctions order. Danny asserts that the sanctions order was inappropriate and that he is entitled to a new trial at which he may present evidence regarding his income. We agree with Danny, and therefore vacate the court’s modification order and remand the case for a new trial.

BACKGROUND

The Petition to Modify

¶3 Amy and Danny divorced in 2010; at that time, the parties were able to reach a negotiated settlement which was later incorporated into a decree of divorce (the Decree). The parties have three children together, all of whom were minors at the time of their divorce; only one of the children was a minor at the time of trial. Under the terms of the Decree, Amy was awarded primary physical custody of the children, and Danny was awarded certain parent-time. Danny is self-employed, and his income for child support purposes was determined to be $8,837 per month. Amy’s earnings at that time were determined to be $4,071 per month. Using these income figures, Danny’s child support obligation was calculated to be $1,485 per month.

¶4 In 2019, nine years after entry of the Decree, Amy filed a petition to modify, seeking, among other things, a modification of Danny’s child support obligation. Discovery and disclosure deadlines were set, with fact discovery scheduled to close in November 2019 and expert discovery scheduled to close in March 2020. The expert discovery deadline passed, and neither party designated any expert witnesses. But in September 2020, Amy filed a statement of discovery issues, asserting that Danny had not disclosed certain financial documents, including his 2019 tax return, and asking that Danny be ordered to do so. Amy further requested that she be allowed "to designate an expert to opine on the limited issue of [Danny’s] expenses versus business expenses." Danny objected to this request, arguing that expert discovery deadlines were "far past" and that Amy "should not be allowed to re-open expert discovery and further extend this matter." After a hearing, the court ordered both parties to disclose their 2018 and 2019 tax returns and associated financial documents to the other, but the court agreed with Danny on the expert disclosure issue, denying Amy’s request and stating that it was "not inclined to extend discovery deadlines."

¶5 Eventually, after some delays due to matters not relevant here, the court scheduled a one-day trial regarding the child-support-related issues to occur on November 10, 2021. In its pretrial order, the court ordered that, "at least 28 days before" trial, the parties were to "provide … pre-trial disclosures," including "[t]he name … of each witness who will be called at trial," "an updated financial declaration," and "copies of their federal income tax returns for the two most recent tax years."

¶6 On November 2, eight days before trial, Danny filed a motion to continue, asserting that he had "been unable to complete his 2020 tax return due to problems with his accounting software," and requesting that the trial be continued so that the parties could "proceed with current and accurate income information." Additionally, Danny brought to the court’s attention that, on October 20, just twenty-one days before trial— and notwithstanding the court’s previous reticence to extend discovery deadlines—Amy had, "for the first time," identified two expert witnesses that she intended to call at trial. Danny asserted that these disclosures should have been made "within 14 days after the close of fact discovery," which, in this case, was some two years earlier in November 2019. Danny asked the court to bar Amy from calling these witnesses at trial and, alternatively, stated that if the court was inclined to allow Amy to call these experts, he should be afforded "the appropriate dis- closures and discovery opportunities set forth" in rule 26 of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. As an added precaution, Danny filed a notice indicating that—contingent on the court’s ruling as to their admissibility— he would like "to receive written reports" from Amy’s newly-disclosed expert witnesses.

¶7 On the same day Danny filed his request for a continuance, Amy filed an objection. While pressing the court to move forward with the trial as scheduled, Amy simultaneously defended the timing of her expert disclosures. On this point, Amy argued that she was attempting to follow the court’s pretrial order, which stated that the list of witnesses that would be called to testify only needed to be provided twenty-eight days before the trial. And, according to Amy, she was doing just that by identifying in her pretrial disclosures the two expert witnesses she intended to call at trial. She argued that these two witnesses were "absolutely necessary" because she intended to rely on "their expert opinion" to demonstrate Danny’s "true income and the expenses being reported on his personal and business income taxes."

¶8 Three days later, the court held a hearing on Danny’s motion. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court granted Danny’s request for a continuance of the trial date and rescheduled the trial to occur on March 1, 2022. The court also indicated that it would allow Amy to call the expert witnesses and it further observed that the continuance would give Danny time to consider whether he wanted to call a rebuttal expert witness of his own. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court noted that the main reason for continuing the trial was so that Danny could complete his 2020 tax return and disclose it to Amy, and it asked the parties whether they wanted to "set a deadline on the tax return." Danny’s attorney stated that he’d rather not set a specific deadline, and Amy’s attorney didn’t argue for one either, stating that he and Danny’s attorney had "worked well together on that kind of stuff’ and that he didn’t think any specific deadline for disclosure of the tax return would be necessary. The court pushed back a bit, asking, "Not a deadline? You’re okay just leaving it out there?" Amy’s attorney responded by stating that he was "fine with that." In accordance with the parties’ wishes, the court set no specific deadline for Danny’s production of his 2020 tax return. The court’s previous pretrial order remained in place, however; as noted, it specified that all pretrial disclosures—including recent tax returns—were due "at least 28 days before" trial, which given the scheduled trial date would be February 1, 2022.

¶9 Not long after the November hearing on the motion to continue, Danny’s attorney withdrew. Danny then elected to proceed to trial pro se.

¶10 On February 3, less than four weeks before the trial date, the court held a status conference. At the conference, Amy’s attorney indicated that he had recently received Danny’s newly-completed 2020 tax return— specifically stating that he "just got those the other day"—but that he was still waiting to receive certain bank statements from Danny. In response, Danny—now representing himself—raised certain issues with Amy’s disclosures, indicating that he had not received all of her bank account information. After hearing from both parties, the court ordered Danny to provide Amy with the requested bank statements and ordered Amy "to do the same."

¶11 During the status conference, the court also discussed the expert witness issue, and it asked Danny if he "had a chance to speak with or read the report from" Amy’s experts. Danny indicated that he had not received any such report. Amy’s attorney stated that he believed the report had been provided either to Danny or his previous counsel, but he offered to "resend" the report to Danny just in case.

The Trial

¶12 On March 1, the trial proceeded as scheduled, with Danny representing himself and Amy represented by counsel. At the start of the proceeding, before any evidence had been presented, Danny brought to the court’s attention that, two weeks earlier, he had filed an objection to Amy’s experts, asking that they be excluded from testifying because he still had not received any reports from them. At this, the court turned to Amy’s attorney for an explanation. Amy’s attorney this time did not claim that any expert report had ever been disclosed to Danny; instead, Amy’s attorney explained that Amy had been unable to "supplement[ ]" her earlier disclosures with the new experts’ reports because Danny had failed to timely provide Amy with financial information—including, most significantly, the 2020 tax return—that the court "had ordered [Danny] numerous times" to disclose. Amy’s attorney proposed that if the court was disinclined to allow these witnesses to testify as experts, they could, instead, be allowed to testify as "factual witness[es]" just to "tell [the court] what a line means on a tax return."

¶13 Concerned about possible...