Fox v. Fox
Fox v. Fox
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
The plaintiff, Garvey Fox, appeals from the judgment of the Superior Court denying his petition for appeal from the decision of a family support magistrate. The plaintiffs appeal to this court is premised on his claim that the magistrate improperly found him in contempt due to his failure to comply with certain child support obligations. We affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.
The record discloses the following undisputed facts. The plaintiff and the defendant, Maureen Fox, married in 1996, and two children were bom of the marriage. Following the subsequent breakdown of their marriage, the parties voluntarily entered into a comprehensive separation agreement that the court incorporated into its judgment of dissolution. On March 3, 2005, the court dissolved their marriage, finding that it had broken down irretrievably, without attributing fault to either party as to the cause.
Pertinent to this appeal is § 1.3 of the separation agreement. It provides in relevant part: “The [plaintiff] shall pay a combination of child support and qualified day care expenses to the [defendant] at the rate of $2250 per month .... The [plaintiff] shall pay to the [defendant] $1125 due for March 1, 2005, by the end of today [March 3, 2005]. The [plaintiff] shall also pay
The defendant thereafter filed multiple motions for contempt due to the plaintiffs failure to comply with his child support obligations. On February 17, 2009, the parties entered into a handwritten agreement (agreement) concerning the plaintiffs child support arrearage. That agreement states: “We agree that there is an outstanding balance of $45,000 of child support in arrears. [The plaintiff] agrees to pay arrears of $10,000 increments of every comm check in the amount of $20,000 and more until said balance is paid. [The plaintiff] will pay $500 per month on a temporary basis of three months [beginning] March 1, 2009.”
Despite that agreement, no child support payments followed. Instead, the plaintiff, a real estate agent in Greenwich, filed a motion to modify the child support order on November 2, 2009. The defendant filed an objection to that motion, as well as two motions for contempt relevant to this appeal. Filed on December 16, 2010, the first motion alleged that the plaintiff had failed to comply with the court's child support order entered as part of the judgment of dissolution on March 3, 2005.
The magistrate issued his written decision on December 15,2011. With respect to the defendant’s motions for contempt, the court specifically found that the plaintiff “knew of the [child support] orders”; that “the orders were clear and unambiguous”; and that “the plaintiff had the ability to pay and the plaintiffs failure to pay was, and remains, wilful.” As a result, the magistrate found the plaintiff in contempt. The magistrate expressly granted both of the defendant’s motions for contempt
I
On appeal, the plaintiff principally contends that the magistrate erroneously found him in contempt for failing to comply with the agreement.
“A finding of contempt is a question of fact, and our standard of review is to determine whether the court abused its discretion in [finding] that the actions or inactions of the [party] were in contempt of a court order. To constitute contempt, a party’s conduct must
The record before us furnishes an ample basis for the magistrate to find that the plaintiff did indeed generate a commission in excess of $20,000, thereby triggering his obligation under the agreement to make payments to the defendant to satisfy the $45,000 child support arrear-age that the parties agreed existed on February 17,2009. Bryan Dinkelacker, the owner and managing broker at Engle and Volkers, LLC, where the plaintiff was employed, testified that the plaintiff received a commission of $25,387.50 for the sale of property known as 65
The magistrate explicitly found “no good faith in the plaintiffs honoring the [agreement].” By way of example, the magistrate discussed the plaintiffs sale of adjoining properties located at 35 Shore Road and 39 Shore Road to the same buyer in the spring of 2011. As the magistrate stated in his decision, “[t]he testimony concerning the sale of [those] adjoining properties . . . to the same corporate buyer was less than credible. The transactions were dated March 23, 2011, and June 16, 2011, respectively, less than twelve weeks apart. By splitting the transactions, the plaintiff and his employer ensured that the plaintiffs commission would not reach the $20,000 denotation established in the [agreement].”
The magistrate also was presented with evidence regarding the plaintiffs financial practices. At the March 18, 2010 hearing, the plaintiff testified that he did not have a bank account or checking account, and that when he received a commission check, he would cash it at the bank on which it was drawn. He testified that he did not have a credit card and paid all of his bills in cash, which he kept in a drawer at his home. The plaintiff also acknowledged that he is a convicted felon who served time in prison for crimes involving
In addition, the magistrate heard testimony regarding various maneuvers that resulted in the plaintiffs receiving decreased net commissions from his real estate sales. He entered into a written agreement on company letterhead with Danielle Scialpi, another real estate agent in his office, whereby he agreed to split all commissions evenly with her. The plaintiff testified that the company paid many of his bills, such as cell phone, dry cleaning and lunch expenses, which later were subtracted from his commission payments. The plaintiff admitted that such moneys paid on his behalf by the company were advances against his future commissions. In addition, Dinkelacker permitted the plaintiff to borrow thousands of dollars from the company. The plaintiff testified that he borrowed “[p]robably around ten grand” in 2009, and that he is expected to repay that amount to the company. When questioned as to whether a written agreement existed regarding the repayment of those funds, the plaintiff testified, “I think there is,” but stated that he did not have a copy of that agreement and did not know where it was located. The plaintiff also acknowledged that the company on occasion retained as much as 30 percent of his commissions for reasons he could not explain. When questioned
The foregoing is evidence on which the magistrate reasonably could find that the plaintiff generated commissions in excess of $20,000, thereby triggering his obligation under the agreement to make payments to the plaintiff to satisfy his child support arrearage. It further substantiates the magistrate’s findings that the plaintiff possessed the ability to pay his child support obligation under the agreement and that his refusal to do so was wilful. Making every reasonable presumption in favor of the correctness of the magistrate’s ruling, we conclude that the magistrate did not abuse his discretion in finding the plaintiff in contempt. Accordingly, the Superior Court properly denied the plaintiffs petition for appeal from the magistrate’s decision.
II
In the statement of issues to his appellate brief, the plaintiff also listed a claim as to “whether the Superior Court judge erred by denying the appeal and not remanding the issue of retroactivity back to the family support magistrate . . . .” He nevertheless failed to provide any analysis of that claim. The “argument” portion of his appellate brief consists of four pages, lacks a single citation to legal authority or the record below, and pertains almost exclusively to the plaintiffs claim that the magistrate erroneously found that he had obtained a commission in excess of $20,000. The very end of the fourth and final page of that “argument” contains the first—and only—mention of the plaintiffs retroactivity claim, where the plaintiff baldly asserts that “[t]he issue of retroactivity was never addressed.”
It is well established that “[w]e are not required to review claims that are inadequately briefed. . . . We
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
In hearing appeals from the decisions of a family support magistrate, the Superior Court acts as an appellate body. See General Statutes § 46b-231 (n) (permitting person aggrieved by final decision of family support magistrate to appeal to Superior Court).
On March 18, 2010, the defendant testified that the actual amount of the plaintiffs child support arrearage was approximately $72,000. She further testified that the $45,000 figure was a stipulated arrearage amount that she accepted in February, 2009, with the understanding that the plaintiff was going to make substantial, if not full, payment within a relatively short period of time.
That motion alleged an outstanding child support arrearage of $50,250.
The magistrate explicitly noted in Ms memorandum of decision that the defendant “alleges that the plaintiff should be found in contempt for, first, Ms failure to pay child support and, second, for Ms failure to honor the agreement entered February 17, 2009.” M fasMoning Ms orders, the magistrate referenced the specific docket entry numbers for those two motions, stating: “The defendant’s motions for contempt (#156.00 and #158.00) against the plaintiff are granted.”
The magistrate further granted the plaintiffs motion for modification “effective the date the plamtiff pays his purge.” The magistrate ordered the plaintiff “to pay $1010 per month for current child support and to pay $202 per month toward his arrears of child support in the amount of $68,335 as of December 13, 2011.” That aspect of the magistrate’s decision is not at issue in this appeal.
The magistrate’s finding of contempt was predicated on two grounds. The defendant’s February 10, 2011 motion for contempt arose from the plaintiffs alleged failure to comply with the aforementioned agreement requirement, while her December 16, 2010 motion for contempt alleged that the plaintiff had failed to comply with the court’s ongoing child support order entered as part of the judgment of dissolution on March 3, 2005. In his December 15, 2011 decision, the magistrate granted both motions and ordered the payment of certain purge, lump sum and attorney’s fees amounts. The plaintiffs challenge to the contempt finding in the present case pertains solely to the magistrate’s finding that he failed to comply with the agreement. He does not contest in any manner the magistrate’s finding that he failed to comply with the child support order entered at the time of dissolution. As a result, irrespective of the merits of the distinct claim advanced in the appeal, the remedy fashioned by the magistrate in ordering payments in connection with the contempt motions must be sustained, as the record contains no indication that that remedy pertained exclusively to the finding concerning the agreement. To the contrary, a plain reading of the December 15, 2011 decision indicates that the remedy fashioned by the magistrate pertained to both findings.
Although his appellate brief avers that the 35 Shore Road and 39 Shore Road properties were sold to “two different investors,” the plaintiff testified before the magistrate that they were sold to the same purchaser.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.