Not Enough Evidence to Set Aside Marital Dissolution Agreement

Tennessee case summary on seeking to modify terms of divorce settlement.

Bruce Milton Miller v. Lucinda Miller Miller

The husband and wife in this Sullivan County, Tennessee, case were divorced in 2017, when they both signed a marital dissolution agreement.  The husband was awarded the marital residence, but was required to pay the wife $475,000 for her share.

Early the next year, the wife filed a petition alleging that she had not yet received the money.  The husband asked to set aside the agreement, based upon a mutual mistake of material fact as to the value of the property.  He argued that the property was worth less than the parties originally believed, and that he should be required to pay only $332,500.  In its order for retroactive support, the trial court agreed with the husband and modified the judgment.  The wife then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  She argued that the original agreement should not have been modified.

The appeals court first noted that modifying an earlier decree is an extraordinary remedy.  It also pointed out that it made a thorough review of the record, and found that the husband presented no evidence of mutual mistake, the reason for which the contract had been set aside.  It noted that the husband’s lawyer had made the argument, and that the husband had interjected a few remarks.  But it found that this was not a substitute for actual evidence.

The appeals court next turned to the issue of whether the trial court erred in its child support rulings.  The wife argued that the husband’s income was greater than stated on the child support worksheet, but the husband argued that the wife waived the issue on appeal.  In particular, it noted that the trial court had stated how it would make the computation, and the wife’s lawyer stated that he agreed.  For these reasons, the Court of Appeals found that the issue was waived on appeal.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals vacated the modification of the agreement, but affirmed in all other respects.

No. E2018-01058-COA-R3-CV  (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 4, 2019).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Property Division in Tennessee Divorce.