Nevada family-law case summaries

Melinda and Paul Miller divorced in 2016 and share joint physical and joint legal custody of one child. For years, their parenting-time schedule kept changing because of Paul's work as a pilot, and the constant changes led to a lot of litigation. In August 2022, Melinda asked the court to set a permanent schedule. While the case was pending, the court temporarily put in place a week-on/week-off arrangement. In early 2023, Paul asked the court to hold Melinda in contempt - a finding that a person disobeyed a clear court order - because, he said, the divorce decree gave him parenting time on President's Day weekend in odd-numbered years, but Melinda picked the child up from school and took him to a soccer tournament in Utah that weekend without Paul's consent. Melinda responded that Paul knew about the tournament and that his own failure to reliably use his parenting time should excuse her actions. Shortly before the evidentiary hearing, Melinda for the first time asked the court - in her pretrial memorandum - to give her primary physical custody, not just a new schedule. Paul filed his own pretrial memorandum the same day and did not address that request. At the start of the hearing, the court told Melinda it would not consider the primary-custody request because it was raised too late and Paul had not received adequate notice or a chance to defend against it. Melinda's attorney asked to amend the pleadings to match the evidence, but the court declined. After the hearing, the court set a new, more predictable schedule and found Melinda in contempt, concluding she intentionally took the child during Paul's clearly defined parenting time without his written consent. It ordered her to pay a $500 sanction and later awarded Paul $1,800 in attorney fees and costs for the contempt issue. Melinda asked the court to reconsider. In a later ruling, the court found a separate contempt motion by Paul to be frivolous and awarded Melinda $500 in fees for opposing it, reducing what she owed Paul to $1,300 plus the $500 sanction. The court kept the contempt finding and fee award but removed the "floating days" from the schedule. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed on all three points. It held the district court acted within its discretion in finding Melinda in contempt because there was a clear order (the divorce decree), Melinda had notice and the ability to comply, and she intentionally violated it - something she acknowledged in her testimony. The court was not persuaded that Paul's own conduct excused her violation. On the sanction and fees, the court found Melinda's arguments unsupported by relevant authority. On the custody request, the court held the district court properly refused to consider a change to primary custody raised for the first time just before the hearing, because letting it proceed without giving Paul adequate notice and time to prepare would not satisfy due process. The appellate court also noted the district court did not permanently bar Melinda from seeking a custody modification in the future - it simply declined to address it at that hearing.