Marriage of Laffaye

── Marriage of Laffaye ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: April 16, 2026 Category: General 25CA0143 Marriage of Laffaye 04-16-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 25CA0143 La Plata County District Court No. 14DR2163 Honorable Kim S. Shropshire, Judge In re the Marriage of Ann Marie Laffaye, Appellee, and Patrick William Laffaye, Appellant. ORDER AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART, AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS Division I Opinion by JUDGE LUM J. Jones and Meirink, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced April 16, 2026 Hinds and Hinds Family Law, P.C., C. Darin Jensen, Greenwood Village, Colorado, for Appellee The Law Firm of Lisa Ward, LLC, Lisa Ward, Donald Lawrence, Jr., Durango, Colorado, for Appellant ¶1 This post-decree dissolution of marriage appeal involves a dispute over the distribution of funds from a deferred compensation account. Husband, Patrick William Laffaye, appeals the district court’s order modifying the terms of the parties’ separation agreement based on its unconscionability. He also appeals the portion of the order declining to award him attorney fees under section 14-10-119, C.R.S. 2025. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings. I. Background ¶2 Husband and Ann Marie Laffaye (wife) jointly petitioned for divorce in 2014. Neither party was represented by counsel. The parties entered into a separation agreement and a parenting plan, which included the following relevant provisions: • Wife shall receive 100% of the “Distribution of Funds, Shares, etc., within the” Westport Strategies Retirement Account. • “The Westport Strategies Retirement Account (a.k.a. Gartner Deferred Compensation Account) is to be used exclusively for post-secondary education as outlined in Section D(4) of the Parenting Plan. Expense reports are to 1  be submitted to [husband] semi-annually. Any shortages or overages will be divided equally by both parties.” • “Post-secondary education expenses for the child(ren) shall be divided with [wife] paying 100% and [husband] paying 0% of” tuition, room and board, books, fees, travel, and spending money. ¶3 Sometime later, the parties discovered that the Westport Strategies Retirement Account (Gartner account) couldn’t be accessed for regular withdrawals or distributions without significant tax penalties. (The parties were apparently unaware of the tax penalty issue when they entered into the agreement.) Wife then paid the children’s colleges expenses out-of-pocket from her separate resources. Wife also took one distribution from the Gartner account in January 2020 (2020 distribution). The gross amount of the distribution was $118,820.84; however, wife received only $76,247.00 after tax withholdings. (It’s unclear from the record whether wife used the funds from this distribution to reimburse herself for college expenses she had paid from other sources or whether the funds went directly to college expenses.) 2 ¶4 After the children finished their postsecondary education, husband asked wife for his share of the remaining balance of the Gartner account. However, the parties disagreed about how the account would be divided. Husband then filed a contempt motion, alleging that wife hadn’t complied with her obligations under the separation agreement. The court declined to find wife in contempt because the separation agreement lacked sufficient detail regarding the date upon which wife was supposed to pay husband his share. The court advised the parties, “[I]f the parties believe the execution of the separation agreement is not possible as