Appeals court weighs whether district court erred by treating trial-day stipulation as binding in home valuation

At oral argument in Dutcher v. Dutcher before the Utah Court of Appeals, Taylor Webb, counsel for appellant David Dutcher, told the court the district court erred by refusing to value the marital home “at the time of the decree” and instead relied on a prior trial-day stipulation to keep an earlier valuation.

Webb argued that “the general principle, the general rule is that the district court is required to value the marital estate at the time of the decree,” and that the trial court gave no adequate reason — other than the parties’ earlier stipulation — for applying an older valuation only to the home while updating other assets. Webb said the stipulation was an informal, trial‑management agreement that did not bind the court at a later set of trial dates, and that the parties and the court treated other updated…