No Requirement to Refinance When Loan Not Specific in Agreement

Tennessee case summary on property division enforcement.

Linda Sue Brown (Hassler) v. Ridley David Hassler

The husband and wife in this Cumberland County, Tennessee, case were divorced in 2017 after executing a marital dissolution agreement.  That agreement was adopted by the court, and called for the husband to receive a condo in Florida.  The husband was to assume the debt and to refinance the property and remove the wife’s name.

In 2019, the wife came back to court asking for the husband to be held in contempt, since the husband had not refinanced the debt and removed the wife’s name.  A hearing was held before Judge Larry Michael Warner, who did not find the husband in contempt, but did order him to refinance the mortgage.  The husband then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

On appeal, the husband argued that the loan in question was not actually owing on the condo.  The Court of Appeals noted that the lower court’s order was “rather sparse,” and critically, the appellate court noted that there had been no proof presented, one way or another, on whether the debt was related to that property.  Arguments had been made by the lawyers, but the court noted that the arguments of counsel are not evidence.

But the appeals court went on to examine those arguments, and noted that the loan discussed in the order was involving a property at a different address.  The wife’s attorney even admitted that the “condo is not encumbered.”

The appeals court pointed out that the martial dissolution agreement applied only to the Florida condo.  Therefore, it held that the lower court’s order was in error.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals reversed the order of the lower court.  The appeals court’s order was penned by Judge Arnold B. Goldin, and Judges John W. McClarty and W. Neal McBrayer joined in the opinion.

No. E2019-01081-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 29,  2020).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Property Division in Tennessee Divorce.