Summary
The Vermont Supreme Court reversed a trial court decision enforcing a purported monthly obligation to transfer $1,896 in military disability benefits under a divorce stipulation. The Court held that because the stipulation had been incorporated into the final divorce judgment, any correction based on mistake had to proceed under Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), and the defendant’s motion was untimely under the rule’s one-year limit. The Court also rejected characterization of the change as a clerical correction under Rule 60(a).
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether a trial court may reform a stipulation incorporated into a final divorce judgment on the ground of mistake without proceeding under Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b).
- Whether Kirkpatrick's motion to enforce, filed more than one year after the divorce judgment became absolute, could be treated as a timely Rule 60(b)(1) motion.
- Whether the omission of the monthly-payment language could be corrected as a clerical mistake under Rule 60(a).
Holdings
- Once a family court incorporates a settlement agreement into a divorce order, the agreement becomes part of the judgment and may be challenged for mistake only through a motion to set aside the judgment under Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). A court may issue supplemental enforcement orders, but it may not alter the stipulated final order over a party's objection.
- A motion seeking relief from a final judgment for mistake under Rule 60(b)(1) must be filed within one year after entry of the judgment. A motion filed after that period is time-barred, regardless of when the moving party discovered or acted upon the alleged mistake.
- The omission of language changing a one-time payment into a lifetime monthly obligation was not a clerical mistake correctable under Rule 60(a), because it affected the parties' substantial rights.
Key quotations
“Once the family court adopts a settlement agreement and incorporates it into the divorce order, the agreement becomes part of the judgment of the court and is assailable only through a motion to set aside the judgment.” (3)
“We have consistently stated that aside from direct appeals to this Court[, Rule] 60(b) is the exclusive avenue for relief from judgments in family court.” (3)
“Rule 60(a) envisions giving relief from minor errors; errors that affect substantial rights of the parties are outside the scope of the rule.” (5)
Factual background
The parties' 2021 divorce decree incorporated a stipulation dividing marital property and providing for the transfer of $1,896 from Maille's military disability benefits to Kirkpatrick. The printed version of the stipulation omitted language indicating that the transfer was monthly, apparently because of technical limitations in the electronic form. Maille made approximately $1,900 monthly payments for nearly a year, then stopped; Kirkpatrick sought enforcement, and the trial court found that the parties had agreed to monthly payments and reformed the decree accordingly.
Procedural history
The parties divorced in April 2021 after the trial court incorporated their final stipulation into the divorce decree. Kirkpatrick moved to enforce the decree after Maille stopped making monthly payments of approximately $1,900. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court found that the parties had agreed to monthly payments of $1,896, reformed the stipulation to reflect that obligation, and enforced it. The Vermont Supreme Court reversed.
Remand instructions
No specific remand instructions were stated; the trial court's decision granting the motion to enforce was reversed.