Recent Developments In Kansas Appellate Cases

March, 2025

ACQUIESCENCE—Right to Judicial Review. In the Matter of the Marriage of Boorigie, Docket No. 127,951 (Unpub. Court of Appeals February 21, 2025. Sedgwick Dist. Ct., J. Kirby, appeal dismissed). Husband appealed the court’s asset division after a 30-year marriage. He acquiesced in the judgment, which cuts off appellate review, “when he voluntarily complied with the judgment by assuming the burdens or accepting the benefits of the judgment contested on appeal. A party who voluntarily complies with a judgment should not be allowed to pursue an inconsistent position by appealing from that judgment.” In this case, he accepted the benefit of the district court’s order by withdrawing funds from an account, in order to make an equalization payment ordered by the court. In so doing he violated the conditions of a court order (as to the withdrawal of funds). He “cannot violate the conditions of a court order to avail himself of the benefits of that order while simultaneously disavowing the burdens of the order by seeking to appeal the order.”

CUSTODY—Necessary Findings. In the Matter of the Marriage of S.L.W. and S.M.W., n/k/a S.M.T., Docket No. 128,075 (Unpub. Court of Appeals February 21, 2005. Decatur Dist. Ct., J. Pratt, affirmed). The district court awarded primary residential custody of a now-16 year old daughter to Mother without finding fault or deficiency in Father’s parenting. In fact, father had been the primary residential parent prior to the court’s decision. Such was not an abuse of discretion. The child told the court in chambers without the presence of her parents that she argued a lot with her father and voiced concerns about how her father treated her. The child told the court her mother respected her more than her father and her father repeatedly called her “selfish” for not babysitting her brother or doing the brother’s chores for him. She told the judge she wanted to live with her mother, which she had told both her parents many times.