Blake v. Smith

534 P.3d 761

DeJuan BLAKE, Appellee,

v.Jillyn SMITH, Appellant.

No. 20210779-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed July 20, 2023

Julie J. Nelson, Attorney for Appellant

DeJuan Blake, Appellee Pro Se

Judge Michele M. Christiansen Forster authored this Opinion, in which Judges David N. Mortensen and Ryan D. Tenney concurred.

Opinion

CHRISTIANSEN FORSTER, Judge:

¶1 Jillyn Smith appeals the district court's order regarding custody and child support for her minor son (Child). Because we determine the court abused its discretion by awarding Smith sole physical and legal custody while requiring joint decision-making between Smith and Child's father, DeJuan Blake, we vacate that part of the court's custody award. Furthermore, because we conclude the court made a mathematical error in calculating the amount of child support, and that a further examination of the evidence of Blake's income is warranted, we reverse the court's child support award and remand for recalculation as appropriate.

BACKGROUND

¶2 Smith met Blake in 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the two entered into a relationship. As a result of the relationship, Smith became pregnant with Child in 2009. At the time Smith learned about the pregnancy, she was no longer living in Las Vegas—she had moved to Utah to escape her relationship with Blake.

¶3 After a tumultuous pregnancy, during which Blake continuously asked Smith to have an abortion, Child was born in Utah in October 2009. Blake traveled to Utah to visit Child twice during the first year of Child's life, with each visit lasting "maybe an hour or two." The sporadic visits continued over the next few years, with Child and Smith traveling with Blake on short trips together. Although Smith asked Blake for financial support during this time, Blake did not provide support and instead always offered an "excuse." Eventually, the communications between the couple became too toxic and Smith elected to "take a break from communication" with Blake.

¶4 Thereafter, Smith decided to "give [Blake] a second chance." Blake and Child had "maybe a few" "infrequent[ ]" telephone conversations a year, but the conversations were short due to Child's speech impediment. Blake was not involved in Child's schooling or scheduling, he never attended Child's doctor's appointments, and he "wouldn't follow through" or offer any explanation as to why he could not help Smith with financial support for Child's medical care or educational needs.

¶5 Blake traveled to Utah in 2015 to attend Child's birthday party. Toward the end of the party, Blake and Smith had a verbal altercation regarding Blake's failure to honor their agreement for Blake to pay Smith child support. Following this visit, Blake returned to Utah once in 2016 to attend Child's baseball game. That visit also ended in a verbal altercation.

¶6 In January 2018, Blake petitioned the district court for paternity and custody of Child. At the time, Child was eight years old and living with Smith.

¶7 After initiating custody proceedings, Blake filed a series of three financial declarations with the district court. Blake is self-employed and owns a company managing professional and aspiring boxers. Blake's stated gross income, monthly expenses, and debt listed on each of the three financial declarations differed significantly. In the first declaration, Blake claimed $0 in gross monthly income, $1,875 in monthly expenses, and a debt of $7,240. In the second, Blake claimed $2,000 in gross monthly income, $17,797 in monthly expenses, and no debt. And in the third, Blake claimed $1,686 in gross monthly income, $3,947 in monthly expenses, and no debt. The bank statements filed with each disclosure were incomplete; however, the bank statements that were submitted showed that between August 2017 and January 2019, Blake made deposits into his personal account totaling $456,669.98, and that during that same time, he made withdrawals totaling nearly $50,000 for investments in cryptocurrency, payments to his mother, payments to the mother of one of his other children, and luxury clothing.

¶8 The case proceeded to a bench trial in October 2020. At trial, Smith detailed the relationship between Child and Blake. She explained that Blake had never been actively involved in Child's life and that Blake had not seen Child at all since May 2016. Smith testified that she and Blake had reached an "original agreement" for child support where Blake would pay her $1,000 per month. She further testified that this agreement did not start until 2015—when Child was already six years old—and that the payments had lasted for only one month. In total, Smith estimated that Blake had contributed $1,600 in support payments "over the entirety of [Child's] life."

¶9 Following trial, the district court adjudicated Blake as Child's father, awarded Smith sole physical and legal custody of Child, and awarded Blake standard relocation parent-time pursuant to Utah Code section 30-3-37, which is approximately 17% of the year. In reaching its legal custody determination, the court analyzed the statutory factors outlined in Utah Code sections 30-3-10 and 30-3-10.2 and concluded that the presumption favoring joint legal custody had been rebutted and that joint legal custody was not in Child's best interest. However, the court ordered a joint decision-making arrangement between the parties, requiring that the parties "discuss with each other decisions that should be made regarding [Child]." The arrangement further provides, "If there is a dispute, the parties should attend mediation and each pay half of the mediation fees. If the dispute remains, then [Smith] will have final say. [Blake] can ... bring the matter to court if he is unsatisfied with the decision."

¶10 Regarding child support, the district court primarily calculated Blake's past child support payments based on his 2018 tax record, where he claimed $45,050 in gross receipts and $34,483 in deductions. After reviewing the evidence, the court concluded that several of the deductions—totaling $27,530—were unsupported and accordingly struck those deductions. Based on this, the court found that Blake's "annual income should be $23,790" through March 2020. However, given the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the court concluded that "Blake's income has come to a halt," and it accordingly found it "appropriate ... to impute minimum wage income of $1,257/month from March 2020 forward."

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶11 Smith now appeals the district court's order regarding custody and child support, raising two issues for our review. First, Smith argues the court abused its discretion when it "issued an internally inconsistent [custody] award" giving Smith "sole legal and physical custody but also order[ing] joint decision-making" between her and Blake. "We review custody determinations under an abuse of discretion standard, giving the district court broad discretion to make custody awards." K.P.S. v. E.J.P. , 2018 UT App 5, ¶ 24, 414 P.3d 933 (quotation simplified). "But this broad discretion must be guided by the governing law adopted by the Utah Legislature. And on matters of statutory interpretation, we review for correctness." Dahl v. Dahl , 2015 UT 79, ¶ 155, 459 P.3d 276 (quotation simplified). And "[w]here the court's findings are internally inconsistent on a material point, reversal and remand are appropriate." Vandermeide v. Young , 2013 UT App 31, ¶ 21, 296 P.3d 787, cert. denied , 308 P.3d 536 (Utah 2013).¹

¶12 Second, Smith argues the district court abused its discretion when it calculated Blake's income for purposes of child support. "We review the district court's decisions regarding child support ... under the abuse of discretion standard." Pankhurst v. Pankhurst , 2022 UT App 36, ¶ 13, 508 P.3d 612 (quotation simplified). Where the court's findings contain mathematical error or conflict with the record, we will remand for recalculation. See Miner v. Miner , 2021 UT App 77, ¶¶ 57–60, 496 P.3d 242.

ANALYSIS

I. Custody

¶13 Smith first challenges the district court's custody award, contending the court abused its discretion in crafting the award because it is "internally inconsistent." According to Smith, the joint decision-making arrangement "undermines" her award of sole physical and legal custody because it "allows [Blake] to force mediation and litigation whenever he disagrees with a decision made by [Smith], even though she has sole legal and physical custody." We agree.

¶14 As an initial matter, the Utah Code does not define "sole physical custody" or "sole legal custody." But in Hansen v. Hansen , 2012 UT 9, 270 P.3d 531, our supreme court provided guidance as to the meaning of those terms. In Hansen , the father and the mother were awarded joint custody of their daughter following their divorce. Id. ¶ 2. The mother was awarded sole physical custody and the father was ordered to pay child support to the mother. Id. Sometime later, the daughter entered a private youth homeless shelter, where she lived through her eighteenth birthday. Id. While the daughter was living at the shelter, the father filed a petition with the district court seeking to redirect his child support payments from the mother to the homeless shelter. Id. ¶¶ 2–3. The court denied the motion, which denial was ultimately upheld by the Utah Supreme Court. Id. ¶¶ 4–5, 30.

¶15 The supreme court's decision centered on the meaning of custody. Although the daughter had been residing at the shelter, the court determined that the daughter's physical custody had not changed; rather, the mother still retained physical custody. Id. ¶¶ 15–19, 28. The court explained,

Family law treatises consistently define custody as a bundle of constituent rights and obligations to a child's possession, care, and control, and explain that the essence of custody is control over all aspects of the child's life coupled with responsibility for the child's welfare. Standard dictionary definitions of custody are to the same effect.

Custody

...