Opinion ID: 2584509
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: [¶ 23] The Trustees contend first that the district court was without jurisdiction to enter its order directing the Trustees to reimburse the Family Trust. Specifically, the Trustees argue that once they filed their notice of appeal in Garwood I, the district court was without jurisdiction to rule on Mr. Garwood's motion for removal of Trustees and recovery of attorneys' fees expenditures by the Trustees. We disagree. [¶ 24] District courts are entitled to a presumption of regularity when exercising their general jurisdiction. KC v. KM, 941 P.2d 46, 50 (Wyo.1997); First Wyoming Bank, N.A.-Cheyenne v. First Nat'l Bank & Trust Co., 628 P.2d 1355, 1362 (Wyo.1981). The question of attorneys' fees and costs in a given civil action is a common issue that a trial court may address, and it does not, as suggested by the Trustees, require the filing of a separate action or a motion to amend a judgment. See Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-14-126 (LexisNexis 2009) (discretion of court in awarding costs and attorneys' fees); W.R.C.P. 54(d) (procedures for post-judgment cost and fee applications). The issue may be addressed as an element of damages, or it may be addressed, as it was in this case, through the filing of a post-judgment motion, as described in Rule 54. See W.R.C.P. 54. [¶ 25] The issue of attorneys' fees and costs was properly placed before the district court by Mr. Garwood's timely filing of a post-judgment application for fees and costs, and the court thus had authority to address the issue in the action before it. The question remains, then, whether the district court lost its jurisdiction to address the issue once the Trustees filed their notice of appeal from its original judgment. We conclude that it did not. [¶ 26] Rule 6.01 of the Wyoming Rules of Appellate Procedure governs jurisdiction after an appeal is docketed. It provides: The appellate court shall acquire jurisdiction over the matters appealed when the case is docketed. In all cases, the trial court retains jurisdiction over all matters and proceedings not the subject of the appeal, including all matters covered by Rules 4 and 5, unless otherwise ordered by the appellate court. W.R.A.P. 6.01(b). Consistent with Rule 6.01, we have held that during the pendency of an appeal, the district court has the right and power to enforce its decrees and orders and to protect the parties as to any rights they acquired in the district court proceedings. KC, 941 P.2d at 50-51; Moore v. Moore, 809 P.2d 255, 258 (Wyo.1991); Coones v. F.D.I.C., 848 P.2d 783, 796 n. 18 (Wyo.1993). [¶ 27] The district court's judgment did not address attorneys' fees and costs. Because those issues were not the subject of the Trustees' appeal, the district court did not lose jurisdiction to address them. [¶ 28] Additionally, we find no inordinate delay in the district court's handling of the attorneys' fees and costs issue. Mr. Garwood filed his application for fees and costs the day after the district court entered its judgment, well within the fourteen days permitted by W.R.C.P. 54. It was only through addressing Mr. Garwood's fee and cost application that the district court learned that the Trustees had, without application to the court for an award of fees and costs, withdrawn funds from the Family Trust to pay their own fees and costs. The Trustees' attempt to bypass the fee application process did not deprive the trial court of its authority to address the Trustees' entitlement to fees and costs. [¶ 29] Nor do we accept the Trustees' suggestion that the district court's delay in deciding the issue until after this Court's decision in Garwood I is indicia that the district court was acting outside its authority. As we will discuss below, the Uniform Trust Code requires that an award of fees and costs from a trust fund be premised on a finding that the action benefitted the trust. The district court thus acted prudently in delaying its consideration of the issue until this Court had ruled on the Garwood I appeal. [¶ 30] The district court had jurisdiction to address the attorneys' fees and costs issues presented to it, and it acted reasonably in delaying its decision on the issues until this Court had decided the appeal from the district court's original decision.