Nakkina v. Mahanthi, 2021 UT App 63 (June 17, 2021)

In this appeal from a divorce decree, the court of appeals held the district court abused its discretion in not awarding parent time equally between the mother and father, erred in its personal property determination, and that its attorney fee award was not supported by sufficient findings. With respect to the personal property determination, the court had awarded the wife jewelry valued at approximately $15,000 on the basis the husband had gifted it to her during the marriage. The court of appeals held the district court applied the wrong legal standard in determining the jewelry was not marital property subject to division. The rule that gifts to an individual spouse are treated as separate property “applies only to gifts received during the marriage from an outside source. It does not apply when one spouse uses marital funds to purchase property, regardless of whether those purchases are designated as a ‘gift’ from one spouse to another.”