TN Wife of 14 Yrs Gets Rehabilitative Alimony $1,500 for 5 Yrs
Tennessee alimony law case summary following 14 years of marriage. Tennessee divorce and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Andy Jackson Truman v Sandra Marie Truman – Tennessee Alimony Laws – 14 years of marriage.
The husband, Andy Truman, filed for divorce against the wife, Sandra Truman. After the bench trial, the court provided the wife with an absolute divorce on the grounds of inappropriate marital conduct. It divided the marital assets and allocated the debt from the marriage. In addition, it awarded the wife rehabilitative alimony and alimony in solido. The husband challenged the award of alimony.
The marriage ended after 14 years. The parties married initially in 1979 but divorced in 1981. They remarried in 1982 and divorced again the next year. In 1989, the two began living together again and on December 31, 1993, they married for the third time. The marriage bore one child, born in May of 1996. In the July 2008 trial, the parties entered a parenting plan for the child.
In 1989, the husband purchased the home of his deceased sister from her estate for $37,500. This was the marital house through the third marriage. The husband added the wife’s name to the deed in January of 1999. The house’s value at the time of the divorce was $200,000 and it had a mortgage of $20,000. The husband worked as an electrical services contractor and, in addition, worked tobacco operations on the farm surrounding the home. This ended in 2003. The husband’s income in 2005 was $128,000 and his anticipated annual income going forward was $96,000.
The wife has a high school education. She worked at Regions Bank in 1981. She worked full-time throughout the marriage except for maternity leave and during a period of three years when she went to work for another bank. The wife held the “head teller” position with Regions Bank (which she went back to) at the time of the divorce. She cannot advance in her employment without a college degree.
The trial court awarded the wife rehabilitative alimony of $1,500 a month for five years. It ruled that the wife was financially disadvantaged with her age of 48, the length of the marriage and the fact that she is unlikely to earn additional income. The appeals court looked at numerous factors to determine if the trial court abused its discretion in awarding the alimony in this case. It noted the trial court considered the length of the marriage, the division of property, and the wife’s age. The evidence, the appeals court stated, did not indicate that the wife’s rehabilitative alimony award was incorrect. It noted that alimony should be rehabilitative in nature saying the goal of this type of alimony is to achieve an earning capacity that will permit the economically disadvantaged spouse’s standard of living after the divorce.
The husband did not support any particular alimony claim. His argument focused on the amount. The amount, the appeals court noted, is at the discretion of the trial court and, without finding any abuse of discretion, the appeals court did not alter the amount of alimony paid. It found the husband could pay the award and thus, should do so.
No. E2009-00237-COA-R3-CV, Filed January 28, 2010.
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more about alimony, read Tennessee Alimony Law in Divorce | Answers to FAQs. Also, see the MemphisDivorce.com Tennessee Family Law Blog and its Alimony category.
Memphis divorce lawyer, Miles Mason, Sr. practices family law exclusively and is the founder of the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC, which handles Tennessee family law matters including divorce, alimony, alimony modification, child support, and child support modification. Download our free e-Book, Your First Steps: 7 Steps Planning Your Tennessee Divorce.
