TN Wife’s Post-separation Income Included for 17 Yr Marriage
Case summary on Tennessee alimony law in Tennessee divorce and family law from Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Patricia Carlene Mayfield v. Phillip Harold Mayfield – Tennessee Alimony Law Appeal
In the case of Patricia Carlene Mayfield, the wife, and Phillip Harold Mayfield, the husband, the court awarded custody of both children to the wife while dividing marital property and awarding the wife with discretionary costs. The husband’s request for alimony was denied and that is what brought forth the appeal in this case.
The storied history of the two occurs over a 17 year marriage in which a college-educated wife who works for Wal-Mart as a pharmacist and a previously employed husband at a Quality Mold Shop in the tool and die industry focuses on a number of factors. After being married, the wife continued to work and agreed to contribute financially to the marriage while the husband remained home with the children and worked to develop a farming business on the land he owned. The farming business struggled though the wife did manage to receive several promotions at her job.
The grounds for the divorce revolved around the husband’s lack of employment after promising to become a contributor but more importantly to the abuse suffered by the wife at the hands of the husband. After repeated abuses, the wife moved herself and the children from the home to live in an apartment with her mother providing care for the children while she worked.
The alimony issues brought forth by the husband revolve around the split of assets involved, which is where the court of appeals took action believing the lower court did not take into consideration the income earned for a period of a year and a half while the couple was separated. The original awarding of the separation of income was done as the following.
The wife was awarded her separate account with $16,000 in it. Of shared property, the court awarded the wife 18 and 18 acre tracts of land valued at $86,000, Wal-Mart stock check valued at $2,700, a Security Federal Savings account of $22,000 and the wife’s 401k account containing $153,000. To the husband, the court awarded $19,000 from the wife’s 401k account, $1567 from the Security Federal Savings, $4,000 in a Wal-Mart stock check, $50,000 in Cattle and Farm Equipment, 31.1 acres of land valued at $115,000 and the 2007 tax refund of $12,500.
After the separation, the wife earned $156,000 in 2008 and $127,283 by the time of the trial in 2009. On appeal, the court ruled that the division of property and classification was correct. The appeals court did not agree with the non-awarding of compensation in 2008 and 2009’s income of the wife. The appeals court noted that the lack of dividing of this income resulted in an inequitable distribution of marital estate. The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration of the appropriate findings of this income.
January 17, 2012, Appeal from the Circuit Court for Warren County, No 3241, Hon. Larry B Stanley, Jr. Judge
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 family law matters including divorce, child support, alimony, prenuptial agreements, child custody, parental relocation, child support modification, and alimony modification.
Disclaimer: See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
