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Son loses father's ranch over elder abuse; court upholds $166,698 divorce award

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The Washington Court of Appeals confirmed two judgments totaling $166,698.50 against Calvin Evans Jr. stemming from his 2011 divorce from Deborah Bunney. The original decree awarded Bunney the marital community's entire $174,000 investment in a ranch because Evans was expected to inherit the property. Although Evans was barred from the estate in 2012 for financially abusing his father, he eventually secured a 50 percent stake in the ranch through an entity he owned. Evans waited until April 2025 to renew his motion to vacate the judgments, leading the appellate court to rule his request untimely and affirm a 2021 order extending the awards.

Key points

  • The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed judgments totaling $166,698.50 and upheld a 2021…: The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed judgments totaling $166,698.50 and upheld a 2021 order extending the divorce awards.
  • Failing to receive an anticipated inheritance does not establish an extraordinary circums…: Failing to receive an anticipated inheritance does not establish an extraordinary circumstance warranting relief from a finalized divorce judgment.
  • Waiting six years after related litigation concluded rendered Calvin Evans Jr.'s renewed…: Waiting six years after related litigation concluded rendered Calvin Evans Jr.'s renewed motion to vacate the dissolution decree legally untimely.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Calvin Evans Jr. expected to inherit his father’s Washington ranch, a property that had also become central to his divorce from Deborah Evans, now Deborah Bunney. During the couple’s 2011 dissolution, a court awarded Bunney the full $174,000 the marital community had invested in improvements to the ranch, based on the expectation that Evans would receive the property from his father. But a separate probate dispute later found that Evans had financially abused his father, leaving him with nothing from the estate and sending the ranch to Evans’s four adult children. Fourteen years after the divorce judgments were entered, Evans asked a court to undo them because the anticipated inheritance never arrived. On November 2, 2026, the Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, refused. It upheld two divorce judgments totalling $166,698.50 against Evans, along with a 2021 order extending them, concluding that his challenge came too late and that the loss of the inheritance was not an extraordinary circumstance justifying relief, as per Justia U.S. Law. Read more details about it here:

The ranch and the divorce

Evans and Bunney…

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