Court Opinion

ID: 9552721
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:15:34.263536+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:28:44.166020
License: Public Domain

GRANT, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur with the majority in affirming that portion of the decree dividing the property and awarding indefinite spousal maintenance of $275.00 per month. Similarly, I concur with the majority’s modification which strikes the $125.00 per month award to appellee in the event she becomes employed. I must, however, dissent from that part of the opinion which affirms the award of child custody to Tom Evans, the minor’s older brother.
The majority position that failure to comply with the procedural requirements of A.R.S. § 25-328 constitutes non-waivable legal error, and not jurisdictional infirmity, is certainly sound. However, the court’s conclusion that this nonjurisdictional problem, presented for the first time in appellant’s reply brief, may not be considered on appeal is fallacious.
Citing the oft-repeated rule that nonju-risdictional issues raised for the first time in an appellant’s reply brief come too late to be considered, the majority concludes it may ignore the trial court’s patent failure to comply with the bifurcated procedure mandated by A.R.S. § 25-328 when child custody is an issue in marital dissolution proceedings. The opinion notes that although appellant has raised the issue of custody in his opening brief, he failed to make the statutory noncompliance argument in support of his position and that this precludes him from so doing in reply to appellee’s answering brief. This result is required neither by the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure nor common logic.
An appellant’s reply brief must be substantively “confined ... to rebuttal of points urged in the appellee’s brief.” Rule 13(c), Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure. Issues raised for the first time in an appellant’s reply brief need not be considered by the reviewing court. United Bank v. Mesa N.O. Nelson Co., 121 Ariz. 438, 590 P.2d 1384 (1979); Camelback Contractors, Inc. v. Industrial Commission, 125 Ariz. 205, 608 P.2d 782 (App.1980). Neither rule 13(c) nor pertinent case law, however, prohibit an appellant from advancing a new argument, in a reply brief, supportive of an issue already raised in the opening brief. As the majority clearly demonstrates, the appellant has unquestionably raised the issue of child custody in his opening brief. Unmentioned by the majority, though, is that the *597appellee, in her answering brief, not only responds to appellant’s custody challenge but attacks his failure to cite hard legal authority for his position. In rebuttal, appellant has provided such authority. Simply put, this is an attempt by appellant to bolster his stance on the issue of custody and rebut appellee’s charge that he has taken a legally untenable position.
As authority for choosing to ignore appellant’s statutory argument the majority cites Evans v. Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., 11 Ariz.App. 421, 464 P.2d 1008 (1970). That case, and others similar in resolve, is inapposite for two main reasons. First, as above reasoned, it stands only for the proposition that new issues are improperly raised for the first time in reply, not new arguments supportive of issues already drawn into contention by the opening brief. Second, and more important, the case is based upon the authority of Rule 5(e), Rules of the Supreme Court, which was abrogated as applicable to civil appeals effective January 1, 1978. That rule, which was plainly more restrictive as to the permissible content of a reply brief provided, in pertinent part, that a reply brief “shall be confined to replying to questions either of law or fact raised by appellee’s brief which were not contained in appellant’s opening brief.” Rule 5(e), Rules of the Arizona Supreme Court (abrogated Nov. 1, 1977, effective Jan. 1,1978). Under this rule, a reply brief must have been limited to rebuttal of new arguments raised by the appellee’s answering brief which the appellant either did not have the chance, or merely failed, to address in the opening brief. The presently applicable rule is more liberal, allowing a reply brief to contain any argument in rebuttal of a point made in an answering brief. Rule 13(c), Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure. We must assume, in the absence of contrary evidence, that the rule change was intended to broaden the scope of permissible matters addressed in the reply brief. There can be little doubt that appellant’s statutory argument, first found in his reply brief, rebuts appellee’s presentation of the custody issue in her answering brief. I would hold that appellant’s statutory noncompliance argument is properly before this court.
The statutory argument being ripe for our consideration, I then take no exception to the majority’s conclusion that noncompliance with A.R.S. § 25-328 results in a legally erroneous custody decree. As the majority opinion discusses, the trial court most certainly has the power, and thus jurisdiction, to render the decree. Having done so in contravention of its statutory authority, however, the logical conclusion is that the trial court’s action must be vacated and the case remanded for custody proceedings consistent with A.R.S. § 25-328.