TN Husband Failed to Prove Value of Wife’s Tax Business
Tennessee law case summary on property division and valuation in Tennessee divorce and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Mary Butcher v Ronald Butcher – Tennessee property division law
In the divorce case of Mary Butcher, wife and Ronald Butcher, the husband appealed the lower court’s ruling of the division of property. The parties married in October of 1976. They filed for legal separation in September of 2007. In May of 2009, the wife filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct. A final decree occurred in July of 2011, ending the parties’ 35-year marriage.
The trial court divided the property awarding each their separate businesses and providing the wife with the real property, including the real estate in which the businesses were located. The lower court awarded the wife with alimony in solido in the amount of $26,139 as well as 61 percent of the marital assets.
On review, the appeal focused on whether or not the trial court erred when dividing the marital property. The wife asserted that the appeal should be dismissed because of the husband’s failure to comply with Rule 7 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals of Tennessee. This rule requires a specific listing of all property and debts considered by the trial including all separate property, all marital property, and all separate and marital debts. It must also contain documentation with evidence of the valuation of the property or debt.
The appeals court met on May 23, 2010. In the opening arguments in the appeals trial, the husband acknowledged he did not include a Rule 7 table in his brief. He did not offer to supplement the briefs.
As a direct result of this, the appeals court ruled that failure to comply with Rule 7 of the Court of Appeals waives the issues related to any of the requirements of this rule (including property valuation.) Therefore, the court is under no requirement to search a trail court record in order to discern the valuation of the property from the marriage.
The court ruled that because the claims made by the husband had no validity by court record and the fact that the trial court did not value the property’s businesses because each was awarded his or her own as separate property, the lower court’s ruling was to stand. The issue of ownership of the businesses never came up in the trial court and he provided no evidence of this.
The appeals court waived the claims of the husband and affirmed the judge of the trial court. It dismissed the peal and remanded the case to the trial court for enforcement of the judgment.
No. W2011-01808-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 12, 2012).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
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