TN Court Remands Mom Married 15 Yrs Getting $500 /Mo Alimony In Futuro
Alimony Tennessee law case summary following 15 years of marriage. Tennessee divorce and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Jan Marie Vaugh v. William Daniel Vaughn – Tennessee Alimony and Divorce Law – 15 years of marriage.
In the case of William Vaughn, the father, and Jan M. Vaughn, the mother, the mother filed for divorce due to inappropriate martial conduct. The parents married in September 1991. After marriage, the father worked to obtain a law degree and obtain a bar license while the mother supported the family as a dental hygienist. In couple had two children, one born in March of 2002 and the other in September of 2004. The oldest daughter became disabled shortly after birth as the result of drinking contaminated formula in the hospital. As such, the child requires significant disability care 24-hours a day.
In order to care for the child, the mother became unable to work as she provides 12 hours of overnight care and was the sole caregiver of the disabled child when nurses are unavailable. In 2004, the couple separated after the father had an extramarital affair and fathered a child by the mistress. The father moved in with the other woman and their son.
On January 2007, the court awarded the mother a divorce. It ordered the father to pay $1,200 in child support monthly at the rate of $600 per pay period. It also awarded alimony in futuro of $500.00 per month, paid at $250 per wage period. It additionally required the father to begin intensive training to use all equipment necessary to care for the older child and to purchase some equipment so the older child could have overnight visits. The court also awarded arrears in child support, at the rate of $4,756 to the mother, and $15,000 in attorney fees.
The father appealed in June 2007 and the court required the father to show reason for why the court should not dismiss the case because it was not filed timely. After missing two deadlines and getting the court to overturn the dismal of the case for failure to act timely, the appellate opinion addressed if the trial court erred in its awards to the mother.
Brought before the court was the father’s claim that the trial court should have awarded any form of alimony since the mother was employed on average of 2 ½ days per week. The appeals court ruled that the award is just in that there is a significant difference in earnings and the mother cannot work due to caring for the disabled child. Additionally, the father asked the court to determine if the trial court erred in calculating his income, child support obligation, employability per week and the use of gross income of the mother. He claimed the mother improperly used her net income when calculating child support. The father claimed the mother’s income calculation should be at 2 ½ days per week, rather than just 2 since she worked 2 to 3 days per week. However, the appeals court looked at her previous work for the period and the mother only worked one day per week on average over the last year. The appeals court remanded the case to the trial court to recalculate the proper child support based on the mother’s gross income.
No. W2007-00124-COA-R3-CV, filed January 18, 2008, Appeals of Tennessee At Jackson, Direct appeal from the Chancery Court for Madison County, The Honorable J.S. Daniel, Senior Judge.
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
Memphis divorce lawyer, Miles Mason, Sr., JD, CPA practices family law exclusively and is founder of the Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC, which handles Tennessee family law matters including divorce, child support, alimony, and alimony modification.
