Opinion ID: 2538252
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: and motion to continue the trial

Text: Elizabeth maintains that the magistrate erred in denying her motion to amend the pleadings to add a claim of common law marriage. She claims her former attorney did not properly plead the issue despite the validity of common law marriages in Idaho prior to January 1, 1996, but that in any event she placed all parties on actual notice of her contention in an August 18, 1999, document entitled Statement of Certification of Compliance, stating the effective date of the marriage as May 1, 1995. She would be entitled to an increased share of property that would be community property if the date of marriage were changed from February 23, 1997 to May 1, 1995.
A court's decision to deny an amendment to pleadings is reviewed by this Court for an abuse of discretion. Hough v. Fry, 131 Idaho 230, 232, 953 P.2d 980, 982 (1998) (citing Southern Idaho Production Credit Ass'n v. Gneiting, 109 Idaho 493, 708 P.2d 898 (1985)). In determining whether the trial court has abused its discretion, this Court applies the three-factor test fashioned in Sun Valley, 119 Idaho at 94, 803 P.2d at 1000. These three factors are: (1) whether the trial court correctly perceived the issue as one of discretion, (2) whether the trial court acted within the boundaries of this discretion and consistent with the legal standards applicable to the specific choices available to it, and (3) whether the trial court reached its decision by an exercise of reason. Id.