Case Title: Whitfield v. Whitfield

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: wyoming

Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Date: 1988-06-29T00:00:00Z

Document:
Whitfield v. Whitfield1988 WY 89756 P.2d 1345Case Number: 87-264Decided: 06/29/1988Supreme Court of Wyoming
DENNIS WAYNE WHITFIELD, 
APPELLANT (DEFENDANT),

v.

JO CAROLE WHITFIELD, 
APPELLEE (PLAINTIFF).

Appeal from the District 
Court, TetonCounty, Elizabeth A. Kail, 
J.

Lawrence B. 
Hartnett, Jackson, for 
appellant.

W. Keith Goody, 
and James K. Lubing of Goody and Lubing, Jackson, for appellee.

Before BROWN, C.J., and THOMAS, CARDINE, URBIGKIT, 
and MACY, JJ.

BROWN, Chief 
Justice.

[¶1.]     This is an appeal from 
a trial court judgment and order finding appellant Dennis Wayne Whitfield in 
contempt of court for failing to appear at an Order to Show Cause hearing 
scheduled for December 22, 1986, and for willful failure to pay child support 
and alimony. Appellant presents one issue:

"Did the district court 
deny the appellant his constitutional right of procedural due process of law by 
failing to give appellant adequate notice of the issues considered at the August 
28, 1987 hearing and a meaningful opportunity to be 
heard."

[¶2.]     We 
affirm.

[¶3.]     This case arose out of 
a divorce action brought by appellee Jo Carole Whitfield on March 29, 1985. That 
action went to trial in the Ninth District Court on June 4, 1986, resulting in 
entry of a divorce decree. The decree provided that appellant would undertake 
the following actions, now relevant to this appeal: (1) pay $500 child support 
per month per child for two children for June, July, August and September 1986; 
(2) pay $1,000 per month per child beginning in October 1986, until each child 
reaches nineteen years of age, marries or is legally emancipated; (3) pay 
$10,400 in monthly installments of $500 beginning January 10, 1987, for interim 
child support and alimony that was past due; (4) and pay $750 per month alimony 
for a duration of three years beginning October 1, 1986. Appellant did not 
comply with these orders in the divorce decree and, on November 12, 1986, 
appellee filed a motion for appellant to appear and show cause why he should not 
be held in contempt of court for failure to comply. The trial court issued an 
Order to Show Cause, as requested, which was filed on November 20, 1986. 
Personal service of this order took place in California on December 10, 1986. The trial 
court set a hearing on the order for December 22, 1986, and appellant failed to 
appear and defend at the scheduled time. In a February 2, 1987, order the trial 
court found appellant in contempt of court for his failure to comply, and 
entered judgment against him for past-due child support, alimony and attorney's 
fees. The trial court also issued a warrant for appellant's arrest at that time. 
On June 1, 1987, appellee filed a pro se petition for a bench warrant to be 
issued. The trial court responded by filing an order for a bench warrant on June 
10, 1987. The warrant was issued on August 11, 1987, and was served on appellant 
the same day when he returned to Teton 
County, Wyoming, with 
the two children after their visitation time with him ended. He was arrested and 
held in the county jail.

[¶4.]     By August 12, 1987, 
appellant had hired an attorney and was trying to secure a hearing before the 
trial court to argue for his release from jail. District Judge Kail was 
unavailable for such a hearing and authorized Robert B. Brodie, District Court 
Commissioner for TetonCounty, to hold the hearing in appellant's 
case. The hearing took place on August 13, 1987 and was recorded on a Gyyr tape 
recorder. After presentation of evidence and argument the Commissioner found 
appellant to be in contempt of court for failing to attend the December 22, 
1986, hearing and sentenced him to eighteen days in the county jail or release 
after posting a $15,000 bond. Appellant posted the bond, was released, and 
returned to California.

[¶5.]     On August 21, 1987, the 
trial court set another hearing in the matter for August 28, 1987. Appellant 
filed a Petition for Modification of Child Support and Alimony along with a 
motion for a continuance of the August 28 hearing, on August 21, 1987. On August 
25, 1987, the trial court denied the motion for continuance, and the trial court 
set a hearing on the petition for October 16, 1987.1

[¶6.]     At the August 28 
hearing, the trial court informed appellant that it would allow presentation of 
evidence concerning his alleged failure to pay child support and alimony from 
December 22, 1986, through August 28, 1987. Appellant objected, claiming 
inadequate notice and a lack of time to prepare a defense on the alimony and 
support payment issues. The trial court noted the objection and heard evidence 
on those issues anyway. After the hearing, the trial court held appellant in 
contempt of court, basing this finding in part on appellant's failure to make 
alimony and child support payments between December 22, 1986, and August 28, 
1987. A Judgment and Order was entered against appellant in the amount of 
$44,736.96 on October 7, 1987.

[¶7.]     Appellant filed a 
Notice of Appeal to that Judgment and Order on October 19, 1987. Along with this 
notice, appellant filed a four volume record; he did not, however, designate or 
file a transcript of the August 13, 1987, hearing before the District Court 
Commissioner or a transcript of the August 28, 1987, hearing before the trial 
court. This deficiency in the record on appeal prompted appellee to file a 
motion in this court to dismiss the appeal under Rules 4.02 and 4.03, Wyoming 
Rules of Appellate Procedure,2 on December 3, 1987. Appellant 
responded on December 10, 1987. On December 23, 1987, this court filed an order 
denying appellee's motion to dismiss the appeal for failure to designate the 
record, and remanded the case to the trial court for the limited purpose of 
supplementing the record on appeal by adding a transcript of the August 13, 
1987, hearing before Commissioner Brodie. Appellant complied with this order on 
March 7, 1988, eighteen days after appellee had filed her brief on appeal. This 
court was never provided with a transcript of the August 28, 1987, hearing, and 
we are told no transcript was ever made of those proceedings. Appellant never 
designated a transcript of that hearing as a part of this record and, 
apparently, failed to make any effort to create an agreed statement of facts 
concerning what happened at that hearing pursuant to Rule 4.03, W.R.A.P. This is 
the status of the case and the record on appeal as it came before this court for 
oral argument.

[¶8.]     Appellant's argument 
here is that he was prejudiced by an abuse of trial court discretion when the 
trial court overruled his objection to the scope of the August 28, 1987, 
hearing. That ruling, we are told, denied appellant due process and unfairly 
prejudiced his right to defend on the issues of alleged nonpayment of child 
support and alimony.

[¶9.]     The problem with that 
assertion, however, is that appellant has made no effort to provide this court 
with an adequate record from which prejudice based in fact occurring during 
the August 28, 1987, contempt hearing can be found. Appellant has the 
affirmative burden when appealing to this court to prepare and provide a record 
evidencing some factual basis for his claim of prejudice. Rule 4.02, W.R.A.P. He 
had an opportunity to attempt to prepare an agreed and approved statement of 
facts concerning what transpired at the August 28, 1987, hearing under Rule 
4.03, W.R.A.P. He has made no effort, that we can find, to make that information 
a part of the record in this case. Consequently, we must presume the trial 
court's actions to have been within its discretion. Feaster v. Feaster, 
Wyo., 721 P.2d 1095, 1097 (1986). See also Lindsey v. State, Wyo., 725 P.2d 649, 652-653 
(1986).

[¶10.]  We also note in passing that it seems 
inconceivable that appellant could not have reasonably anticipated that the 
trial court might hear evidence about the alleged violations of the divorce 
decree. Appellant's failure to attend the Order to Show Cause hearing held on 
December 22, 1986, to address those issues, was the genesis of this appeal. 
Appellant also appears to be arguing that he did not receive notice that the 
trial court might hear evidence on those issues; however, at the same time his 
Motion for Continuance, filed August 21, 1987, contained this 
statement:

"* * * 10. That the 
substance of the matters pending before the Court pertain to the failure and/or 
inability of the Defendant to make the payments to the Plaintiff required by the 
Divorce Decree and to require the Defendant to travel to Wyoming on more than 
one occasion, with the attendant multiple expense of travel from California to 
Wyoming and loss of income to the Defendant would create a genuine hardship to 
the Defendant."

[¶11.]  Appellant obviously understood that the 
trial court could hear evidence on those issues well before he claimed a lack of 
notice on August 28, 1987.

[¶12.]  Affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

1 Counsel for appellee 
informed us in oral argument that the Petition for Modification of Child Support 
and Alimony had been withdrawn before the trial court ruled upon both it and the 
Motion for Continuance. The record before this court does not evidence any 
withdrawal of the petition.

2 Rule 4.02, Wyoming Rules 
of Appellate Procedure provides in pertinent part:

"The appellant shall, within ten (10) days after filing 
the notice of appeal, file and serve on the appellee a description of the parts 
of the transcript which he intends to include in the record, and, unless the 
entire transcript is to be included, a statement of the issues he intends to 
present on appeal. If an appellant intends to urge on appeal that a finding or 
conclusion is unsupported by the evidence or contrary to the evidence, he shall 
include in the record a transcript of all evidence relevant to such finding or 
conclusion. * * * *"

Rule 4.03, W.R.A.P. 
provides:

"If no report of the 
evidence or proceedings at a hearing or trial was made, or if a transcript is 
unavailable, the appellant may prepare a statement of the evidence or 
proceedings from the best available means, including his recollection. The 
statement shall be served on the 
appellee, who may serve objections or propose amendments thereto within ten (10) 
days after service. Thereupon the statement and any objections or proposed 
amendments shall be submitted to the district court for settlement and approval 
and as settled and approved shall be included by the clerk of the district court 
in the record on appeal." (Emphasis added.)