Mom Awarded Fees for Appeal But Not Protective Order

Tennessee case summary on attorney’s fees.

David New v. Lavinia Dumitrache et al.

Attorney’s fees remanded for appropriate determination.

In 2008, the mother and father in this case were divorced in Bexar County, Texas.  The Texas court’s decree included a permanent parenting plan that had been agreed to by the parties.  After the divorce, the mother and child moved to Tennessee, and the father moved to Mississippi.

After moving to Tennessee, the mother filed a petition in Shelby County for orders for protection against the father.  That court also awarded the mother her attorney’s fees in 2016.

A few weeks later, the father filed a motion in Shelby County to enroll the Texas judgment and to appeal the order for protection.  The mother moved to dismiss, and also asked for an award of attorney’s fees.  The trial court granted the mother’s motion, on the grounds that it did not have jurisdiction to reverse the earlier order for protection.  It also found that the petition to enforce the Texas judgment was lacking.  After obtaining an affidavit from the mother’s attorney, the court awarded the mother $24,000 in attorney fees plus about $1,400 in costs.  The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  He argued that the award of attorney’s fees was improper.

The trial court had awarded attorney’s fees under s statute allowing fees when a court grants a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.  The appeals court agreed that the fees were appropriate under that statute.  But it then went on to examine the amount of fees awarded.  The father argued that the amount was excessive under the circumstances.  Here, the appeals court agreed, at least in part.  The appeals court noted that the fees were appropriate for the action brought by the father, but the mother’s fees apparently included amounts used for obtaining the order of protection.  For this reason, it remanded the case for a redetermination of the appropriate amount of fees.  It affirmed the lower court’s rulings in other respects.

No. W2017-00776-COA-R3-CV  (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 12, 2019).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see The Tennessee Divorce Process: How Divorces Work Start to Finish.