WILSON VS. WILSON (DIVORCE)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

This per curiam opinion resolved two motions made in connection with the husband's appeal from an order granting the wife's motion for a change of place of trial. On the motion to strike, the court held that nothing can be considered on appeal except the record as made and considered by the court below, because the appellate court passes only upon alleged errors or abuse of legal discretion by the trial court and cannot look to matter dehors the record (Water Co. of Tonopah v. Tonopah Belmont Dev. Co., 50 Nev. 24, 249 P. 565; Brearley v. Arobio, 54 Nev. 382, 12 P. (2d) 339). The affidavits at issue - offered to show why counsel could not appear at the change-of-venue hearing - had not been filed below and were therefore stricken. On the wife's application for attorney's fees on appeal, the court weighed the husband's admitted worth of $20,000 and $3,000 of income already received that year against the wife's income of $30 per month and fixed $150 as a reasonable allowance, ordering payment to the wife or her attorney within ten days.

In plain language

In a divorce case, the wife asked to have the trial moved to a different county, and the trial court granted her request and transferred the case to Washoe County. The husband appealed that order. Before the appeal was decided on its merits, the wife made two requests to the Nevada Supreme Court: to strike certain sworn statements the husband had submitted that had never been filed in the trial court, and to award her an attorney fee for the appeal. The court granted both requests. On the affidavits, it held that on an appeal it can look only at the record actually made and considered by the trial court, because its job is to review claimed errors by that court; it cannot consider material outside that record. The challenged affidavits (which tried to explain why the husband's lawyer could not attend the venue hearing) had not been filed below, so they were stricken. On the fee, the court noted the husband admitted he was worth $20,000 and had already earned $3,000 that year, while the wife's income was only $30 a month. It ruled that $150 was a reasonable attorney fee and ordered the husband to pay it to the wife or her attorney within ten days.