Marriage of McCale, 23CA1562

This case arises from the dissolution of marriage proceeding between Allyson Ann McCale (mother/appellant) and Donald Richard McCale, III (father/appellee) in Colorado after a nearly 30-year marriage.
The district court entered permanent orders after a hearing: mother was awarded maintenance, and father was ordered to pay child support since mother was primary caretaker for their disabled son.
The court imputed potential income to mother and set a tiered maintenance schedule, also obligating father to maintain unspecified life insurance; it declined to direct child support payments into a special needs trust.
Mother filed a motion post-trial requesting specification of life insurance amount and contesting both the imputation of her income and certain orders; the court denied that motion.
Father challenged the timeliness of mother’s appeal, and both parties sought attorney fees on appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Timeliness of Appeal	Appeal timely filed after Rule 59 motion denied	Appeal untimely after permanent orders	Appeal was timely
Imputation of Potential Income	Court needed to find voluntary underemployment/shirking to impute income	No additional finding required for imputation	District court erred; no shirking finding made
Child Support into Special Needs Trust	Child support should go into a trust for disabled son	No developed argument on special needs trust	Issue undeveloped, to be considered on remand
Life Insurance Amount Specification	Father should be ordered to maintain $850,000 policy	Issue not preserved; only general obligation agreed	Unpreserved; court did not err in rejecting request
Judicial Bias	Judge’s comments showed bias requiring recusal	No bias warranting recusal	Comments did not rise to bias; no recusal necessary
Attorney Fees on Appeal	Entitled under Rule 38(b) and § 14-10-119	Fees warranted if appeal untimely/unpreserved	No fees under Rule 38(b); § 14-10-119 to be decided remand

People v. Martinez, 70 P.3d 474 (Colo. 2003) (court must find party is shirking financial obligations by voluntarily underemploying before imputing income)
In re Marriage of Connerton, 260 P.3d 62 (Colo. App. 2010) (income can be imputed to obligee parent in child support)
In re Marriage of de Koning, 364 P.3d 494 (Colo. 2016) (property division occurs before maintenance/child support and does not require re-division absent property determination error)
Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540 (1994) (judicial remarks rarely constitute bias unless showing deep-seated antagonism or favoritism)
Berra v. Springer & Steinberg, P.C., 251 P.3d 567 (Colo. App. 2010) (issue is preserved if brought to trial court’s attention)