Imprisoned Husband in Contempt For Not Transferring Gaza Strip Property

The wife in this Knox County, Tennessee, case was from Cairo, Egypt, and the husband was from Palestine.  They married in 1996 and moved to Knoxville, where they had four children, one of whom had significant disabilities.  They were divorced in 2019, after the husband was incarcerated for 17 years for kidnapping and assaulting a man he accused of having a relationship with the wife.  It was discovered during the case that the husband was dissipating marital assets with the help of his brother and sister-in-law, who were added to the proceedings.

One of the marital assets was property located in the Gaza Strip, and the trial court ordered income for this property to go to the wife.  In addition, it ordered the husband to sign a quitclaim deed, or other necessary document, in order to transfer the Gaza property to the wife.

The husband’s relatives were ordered to sell all Gaza property on commercially reasonable terms, and the wife was to be paid over a million dollars to cover various judgments the wife had against him.

In 2021, the wife filed an action against the husband and his relatives for criminal contempt.  This was later amended to include civil contempt.  The case was bifurcated, and in 2022, a Zoom hearing was held, at which all parties were present.  The evidence showed that the required sales of the Gaza property were not happening.  The trial court held the husband and relatives in contempt.  It ordered the husband to issue a power of attorney to his brother to sell the properties within 120 days and deposit the proceeds into a trust account.  An appeal was brought to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  The husband was acting pro se, and the other parties had attorneys.

The husband first argued that the trial court should have continued the case to give him time to find an attorney.   The wife pointed out that he had plenty of time, about a year, since the petition was filed, and there was no evidence of his making any actual attempt to find one.

The appeals court noted that a party seeking a continuance has the burden of proof.  The appeals court agreed with the wife and the lower court that the husband, who was not indigent, had plenty of time to find a lawyer.  Therefore, it affirmed the lower court’s order denying a continuance.

The appeals court next affirmed the contempt finding against the relatives.  It noted that they made little or no attempt to comply with the orders, and found that this was willful disobedience.

The husband argued that he was incarcerated and unable to comply.  But the trial court found that he had at least some ability to comply, and the appeals court agreed.  The husband had money in his prison account, and could have used this to comply with the support orders.  And it found that the husband made no effort to effectuate the sale of the Gaza properties.  The orders were clear and unambiguous, and the evidence supported the finding of contempt.

The Court of Appeals also found that the appeal was done for the purpose of delay.  Therefore, it also awarded the wife her attorney’s fees on appeal.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court and remanded the case for further proceedings, including calculation of the wife’s attorney’s fees.

No. E2023-00128-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 5, 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 Property Division in Tennessee Divorce and view our video Is Tennessee a 50 50 divorce state?