Court Opinion

ID: 9548687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:06:57.054703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:17.168739
License: Public Domain

SILAK, Justice,
specially concurring.
I concur with the Court’s opinion, but concur in the result of Part V. Obendorff requested attorney fees in the contempt proceeding in the amount of $1,000, but never based his request upon Idaho Code § 12-120(3) as he now does on appeal. The district court entered its judgment on April 26, 1997. At that time, the court had the inherent power to grant attorney fees up to the amount of $500 as a contempt sanction. See Ross v. Coleman Co., Inc., 114 Idaho 817, 839, 761 P.2d 1169, 1191 (1988) (court had power to grant fees but only up to the statutory limit of $500 contained in former I.C. § 7-610 (amended 1997)); State ex rel. Evans v. Click, 102 Idaho 443, 450, 631 P.2d 614, 621 (1981) (award of attorney fees in contempt proceeding upheld). The district court declined to do so based upon Obendorffs delay in bringing the action, and I would uphold the discretionary decision of the district court under the standard of Sun Valley Shopping Ctr. v. Idaho Power Co., 119 Idaho 87, 94, 803 P.2d 993, 1000 (1991). I believe that a ruling from this Court on the applicability of I.C. § 12-120(3) to contempt proceedings is unnecessary given what I believe the record reveals about the basis for the request and the basis for the court’s denial of the request. Additionally, I.C. § 7-610 was amended on July 1, 1997, to provide explicitly for the district court’s discretionary award of attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party in contempt proceedings.