Husband’s Appeal Tossed Out When He Fails to Follow Rule in Brief

The wife in this Robertson County, Tennessee, case filed for divorce after about two years of marriage.  She had also sought an order of protection.  A month after filing the divorce case, she made a petition for ex parte relief, alleging that the husband brandished and fired a handgun through her windshield, barely missing her ear.

Trial in the divorce place took place in 2022.  A key issue in the case was a rental property in Lawrence County.  The husband had purchased the property prior to the marriage from retirement funds.  But she argued that it should be treated as marital property.  It was used as rental property, and rental income was deposited into joint accounts or on family expenses.  She also testified that she would “go down there” to the property along with her husband, and she had paid the property taxes online with funds from their joint account.

The trial court, Judge Adrienee G. Fry, held that funds had been inextricably comingled, such that the property became a marital asset.  It awarded 40% to the wife, and the husband appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Unfortunately for the husband, he had failed to follow a rule of the Court of Appeals.  Whenever property classification is at issue, the brief should include a table listing all separate and marital property.

It cited previous cases in which failure to include this table meant that issues of classification and division were waived.

Since the husband failed to include this table, it held that the husband waived that issue.  Therefore, it affirmed the lower court’s judgment and remanded the case.  It also assessed the costs of appeal against the husband.

No. M2023-00069-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2024).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Property Division in Tennessee Divorce and view our video Is Tennessee a 50 50 divorce state?