Court Opinion

ID: 9595235
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:37:17.503617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:33:02.197755
License: Public Domain

CARDINE, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the opinion of the court to the extent that it affirms the trial court’s finding of an arrearage of $3,575 and contempt of the husband. I agree also with remand of this case to the district court to allow the husband to purge himself of the contempt before we address the other issues he presents.
I part company with the court, however, when it undertakes to impose contempt for failure to make future payments after this appeal was taken. As an appellate court, we are confined to the record on appeal. The record is silent with respect to future payments and possible arrearages. There is no evidentiary development of ability to pay, need of the recipient, situation of the respective parties, and other pertinent considerations. We cannot consider matters on which the record is silent. Mentock v. Mentock, 638 P.2d 156, 160 (Wyo.1981). I dissent to the extent that the court conditions the husband’s purging his contempt by requiring him to make future payments *905which may have accrued after appeal was taken. Such an order is beyond our jurisdiction. We are not a trial court and cannot and should not attempt to function as such.