The facts. A father allegedly consented to a sham marriage for his minor daughter to evade the magistrate court’s jurisdiction over a custody dispute with his ex-wife. The mother requested expedited relief to stop the sham marriage, but the magistrate court did not enter an order stopping the father from consenting to the marriage until after the marriage had occurred. The mother asked the magistrate court to apply its order retroactively and nullify the marriage, but the magistrate court declined to do so, finding that the marriage would be voidable—not void ab initio. The mother appealed.

The issues. Two issues were on appeal: (1) whether the doctrine of nunc pro tunc allowed the magistrate court to apply retroactively an order granting an emergency motion that it did not see until eight days after the motion was filed, and (2) whether an Idaho law allowing only one parent to consent to the marriage of a minor child is constitutional.

The result. In a 3-2 decision, the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed. The Court declined to address the merits of the nunc pro tunc issue because even if the order applied retroactively, the marriage would be voidable—not void ab initio. Thus, the magistrate court would still lack jurisdiction overt the custody proceedings. The Court also declined to decide whether an Idaho law permitting only one parent to consent to a minor child’s marriage is unconstitutional because the mother presented a “cursory” argument in her opening brief and her attorney “did not provide any substantive response to the Court’s questions on the issue during oral arguments.”

Practice Pointers.

  1. Even in cases with extreme fact patterns like the alleged sham marriage of a minor child, the Court will strictly apply preservation rules—even more so if an appellant fails to provide substantive arguments in its opening brief and at oral argument.
  2. An appellant must remember to request relief that will change the outcome below. The Court declined to address the nunc pro tunc argument because the magistrate court would still lack jurisdiction even if the mother’s argument was correct.
  3. Unless a judge instructs otherwise, it is a best practice to submit to chambers courtesy copies of time-sensitive filings. This appeal may have been avoided if counsel had sent a courtesy copy of the motion requesting that the magistrate court stop the father from consenting to the marriage.

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Welcome to the Stoel Rives Appellate Law blog, dedicated to providing those in appellate law practices regular updates on significant decisions from courts of appeal within our regions of practice. It is our goal to build out this blog to be a handy resource for both keeping up to date on new decisions and quickly locating information about past decisions.