Unemployed Dad Must Pay Support Based on Imputed Income

The husband and wife in this Wilson County, Tennessee, case were married in California in 2007.  The husband had an MBA, and the wife was a high-school graduate.  Their children were born in 2008 and 2014.  The wife had a California real-estate license, but was a stay-at-home mother and homeschooled the children.

Shortly before the oldest child was born, the husband, who worked for Bank of America, resigned because he was about to be laid off.  They filed bankruptcy and moved in with the husband’s parents for about six months.  He got a job with another bank, but was laid off in 2014.  Eventually, he was hired as the CEO of an insurance services firm with a salary of about $350,000 per year.  He was eventually forced to resign, and began searching for a company to acquire, run, and sell.  He found one in Tennessee, where the couple moved in 2016.  But that deal fell through, and the family subsisted on savings, investments, and credit cards.

In 2019, when the couple began experiencing marital difficulties, the husband was offered a job with a high salary, but required him to relocated to Ohio.  With the strain on the marriage, the wife never relocated, but the children did visit the husband in Ohio.  In 2020, the wife filed for divorce, and shortly thereafter, the husband lost the job in Ohio.

The trial took place in December 2023, and the trial court made its final decree of divorce in April 2024.  The trial court first found that after separating, the husband had moved to Baton Rouge, not for employment purposes, but for his paramour.  It found the wife to be the economically disadvantaged spouse, and that the husband was willfully unemployed.

The trial court looked at the husband’s income over the 14 years of the marriage and determined that the husband should have income of $252,000 imputed.  The wife’s income was set at about $36,000 per year.

The wife was named primary residential parent, with 267 days per year of parenting time.  The wife was awarded $2177 per month in child support.  It also accepted the wife’s proposed division of the parties’ assets.

The wife was also granted rehabilitative alimony of $3000 per month for 36 months, followed by $2000 per month for another 60 months.  After the rehabilitative alimony, she was to receive alimony in futuro of $1500 per month.  She was also awarded $43,000 attorney fees.  The husband then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first affirmed the visitation schedule and property division (with one modification) before turning to child support.  Here, the husband argued that the trial court had erred in imputing income to him.  He acknowledged that some imputed income was appropriate, but it should be based upon a shorter timeframe, and should not have included his high earnings early in the marriage.

The appeals court pointed out that the lower court was clearly unconvinced by the husband’s explanations for unemployment during the proceedings.  It also noted that the trial court had ignored the recent years, during which the husband’s income was merely nominal.  Overall, it found no fault with the trial court’s approach of using the full marriage as the relevant time period.  For this reason, it affirmed the lower court’s imputation of income.

On the issue of alimony, the husband argued that the trial court had not made adequate findings.  On this issue, the Court of Appeals agreed.  It found specifically that the trial court had not made findings as to the husband’s ability to pay or the wife’s need.  For that reason, it vacated the alimony award and remanded for reconsideration and proper findings.

The husband also successfully had reversed the order for attorney’s fees to the wife, since it held that some of these fees should have been paid from the marital estate.  It also denied the wife her attorney’s fees on appeal.

For these reasons, the Court  of Appeals vacated the lower court’s ruling in part, and remanded the case.

No. M2024-00668-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. July 15, 2025).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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

To learn more, see Alimony Law in Tennessee, and our video, How is alimony decided in Tennessee?

To learn more, see Child Support Laws in Tennessee.