Attorney Loses Own Divorce Case When She Failed to Appear at Trial

Tennessee case summary on attorney’s fees in divorce.

Gary Lee Odom v. Rachel Lea Zamata Odom

The husband and wife in this Davidson County, Tennessee, case had been married seven years when the husband filed for divorce.  At the time of trial, the husband was 66 and the wife 33.

The husband had paid for the wife to go to law school during the marriage, and she was an attorney in private practice.  A few days before the trial was scheduled to begin, she faxed the court a notice that she had discharged her attorney.  The attorney later filed a motion to withdraw, and that motion was granted.  The wife also filed a motion to have the trial judge, Phillip R. Robinson, recused from the case.  This motion was denied, and the case proceeded to trial.  The wife failed to appear at the trial, but the next day, the wife made a motion to set aside the withdrawal of her attorney.

The husband was granted a divorce on the grounds of inappropriate marital conduct.  The court divided the property and also awarded the husband over $38,000 in attorney’s fees.   After unsuccessfully moving to set aside the judgment, the wife appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first turned to the recusal motion.  The wife argued that the trial court’s actions, taken in totality, resulted in a violation of her Due Process rights.

Here, the Court of Appeals ruled that the wife had waived her complaints.  It noted that a recusal motion must be filed promptly after the facts behind it become known.   In this case, most of the alleged complaints stemmed from an earlier hearing, but the motion was not filed for four months.

The appeals court also held that the wife hadn’t presented sufficient evidence of the alleged bias.

The appeals court also held that, based upon the circumstances, the trial court acted properly in allowing the attorney to withdraw and not delaying the trial.

The wife did fare better when it came to the issue of attorney’s fees.  It did approve an award of $4,500 for discovery, since it pointed to specific misconduct by the wife.  But the basis for the additional attorney’s fees was not stated in the record.  In particular, there was no finding as to the husband’s need.   Therefore, it reduced the award by $32,500.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded the case.

No. M2018-00405-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Aug.  5,  2019).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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