Blanco v. Blanco

OPINION

By the Court,

Hardesty, J.:

In this divorce case, the wife was representing herself and failed to comply with several of the husband’s discovery requests. As a consequence, the district court entered a default divorce decree against her as a sanction. We must decide the propriety of such case-concluding discovery sanctions in divorce proceedings, particularly in those cases involving child custody. We hold that it is not permissible to resolve child custody and child support claims by default as a sanction for discovery violations because the child’s best interest is paramount and…