Court Opinion

ID: 9633058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:32:45.950291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:28.165112
License: Public Domain

Wendell L. Griffen, Judge, dissenting. Although I agree that the circuit court properly refused to set aside the order on mandate due to appellant’s failure to comply with Rule 60 of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure, I would hold that the contempt finding in this case was supported by substantial evidence. The majority opinion asserts that this is a simple case of a party who “merely failed to fulfill a sales contract.” Plowever, appellant’s behavior goes much deeper. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent. While the majority opinion properly states the procedural background of this case, it omits the evidence presented at the hearing on the contempt petition. At that hearing, appellant acknowledged that he offered to pay $231,000 for the marital residence, but that he was unable to complete the transaction because no bank would lend him the bond money. He stated that he bid that amount thinking that he was going to pay half, as he already owned half the home. Appellant also noted that the house was not insured and that, when he paid an insurance premium, he was told that the home had to be occupied before insurance coverage would apply. He testified that he tried to comply by placing his belongings inside the house; however, he was told by the clerk of the court that he was in the home illegally. On cross-examination, he acknowledged that he had purchased five houses since moving away from the marital residence. Appellee testified that it cost her $1600 to construct a storage building and that she could move the building for $250 to $300. She claimed $600 in damages for having to move out of the marital residence plus construction of the storage building. She also noted that she was at the auction of the marital residence and that she submitted a bid of $230,000, thinking that the bid represented the value of the home. At the conclusion of the hearing, the circuit court noted as follows: Now, the other one is, on your motion for contempt. I don’t know how many calls I got from the clerk’s office and I just don’t know, the poor circuit clerk here is just — I’m surprised she’s got any hair left on her head because every time I visited her, she was pulling it out. And, that was caused by you, Mr. Farr. Ms. Farr bid it up to $230,000 and you bid her one more and you said you would proceed on it. Now, I required you to put up at least the amount of the bond of one-half plus half the debt, did I now, isn’t that correct? And, the fact that the testimony has been from Mr. Farr today is that he’s — he’s bought a new house in Fort Smith, I believe he said he paid $120,000 for that one. He’s getting ready to buy one in Oklahoma for $80,000. He bought another one for $162,000, so, the fact that he indicates he can’t proceed with the sale or put up a bond doesn’t carry much water in my opinion.... It looks like to me he’s doing quite well. So, I don’t find that’s a viable argument that he couldn’t follow through on the sale or put up whatever bond he needed to put up. I believe that Mr. Farr is trying to pull a little bit of wool over the Court’s eyes. And, even though he bid on the property, he had keys made. There’s a dispute in the facts as to whether or not the locks were drilled or whatever, but the truth of the matter is and I think it’s pretty well uncontroverted is that he went out there and tried to move stuff in before he had authorization to do so, he had a key made in direct defiance of the order of the Clerk and then attempted to move stuff and so forth in and put and as far as I’m concerned, you’re in contempt for those particular reasons. Now, here’s what I’m concerned about. If this were a third party ... who’d bid on this property and put up $23,000 and that party didn’t follow through on the sale, I’ve always understood that that was earnest money and earnest money like any other real estate deal would be — that’s the value or that’s the damage that you have incurred and the right to keep that money because you have taken that property off the market during that period of time because you failed, the proposed buyer, failed to follow through and close the transaction and as a result, then that money should be forfeited. That’s what I would say on any real estate deal is the way I understand it. I’m going to give you a chance to tell me I’m right or wrong on this issue, but it looks like to me the money ought to be forfeited and that’s what I’m thinking. I’m not ordering it, I’m going to give you a chance if you can find me some legal — case law that says I shouldn’t do it that way, then I’ll be glad to refund the money to Mr. Farr. I don’t think that’s right and I think he’s playing games with the Court and Ms. Farr. I think he’s played games with Ms. Farr and that the Court’s been drawn in as part of it and the clerk. Those are the two things I don’t care for. What you two do to each other is fine, but when you get in front of the Court, then you’re going to have to take responsibility for it. So, here’s what I’m going to do. First of all, I don’t agree with all of Ms. Farr’s request for damages. You built your storage building and I believe from Mr. Foster, he indicated that the most you could have would have probably been $1,000 in expenses for moving and you were going to have to move anyway, so I don’t have a whole lot of part in that argument because you were going to have to move anyway at some point, you might not have if you’d have been the successful bidder and Mr. Farr hadn’t have bumped you up, so I’m going to award you $1,000 on your moving expenses or damages for what — I shouldn’t say moving expenses because I don’t think that’s correct. But damages occurred as a result of your actions, Mr. Farr, in doing all this and bidding it up and then not following through on it and going out there and causing the problems. Now, on the attorneys fees, Mr. Maddox, you can submit your time sheet from the time of the report of the sale through today. Whatever those are, I’ll grant you attorneys fees on that. Disobedience of any valid order of a court having jurisdiction to enter it may constitute contempt, punishment for which is an inherent power of the court. Aswell v. Aswell, 88 Ark. App. 115, 195 S.W.3d 365 (2004). An act is deemed contemptuous if it interferes with the order of the court’s business or proceedings or reflects upon the court’s integrity. Ward v. Switzer, 73 Ark. App. 81, 40 S.W.3d 325 (2001). Before a person may be held in contempt for violating a judge’s order, the order alleged to be violated must be definite in its terms as to duties imposed, and the command must be express rather than implied. Johnson v. Johnson, 343 Ark. 186, 33 S.W.3d 492 (2000). While the majority opinion states that appellant was held in contempt for failing to close on the sale of the marital residence, the issue here is much deeper. The contemptuous behavior includes the act of increasing the bids on the property to prevent appellee from obtaining the home, then failing to follow through with the purchase despite the ability to do so (as evidenced by the purchase of other residences in that same time period). These actions frustrated the purpose of resolving the property issues in this arduous divorce.1  Further, the majority notes that appellant stood to forfeit his bond for his failure to complete the sale of the home. It so states without any citation to authority and despite the circuit court’s reluctance to automatically forfeit the bond at the conclusion of the contempt hearing. Appellant certainly did not believe that his bond payment was subject to forfeiture, as he filed a request to have his bond money refunded. If the circuit court were to grant his remedy, it would leave appellee without a remedy. The majority sees this case as a simple failure to follow through with the sale of a residence, but the issues go much further than that. Because I would hold that the circuit court did not err in finding appellant in contempt, I dissent. I am authorized to state that Judge Gladwin joins in this dissent.   According to documents in the record, another auction was held on January 25, 2007, and the marital residence was ultimately sold to a third party for $217,000, $14,000 less than appellant’s “successful” bid. Appellant’s behavior deprived the marital estate of that money, half of which would have been presumably awarded to appellee.