When Is a Tennessee Spouse Entitled to Rehabilitative Alimony?

Tennessee alimony law case summary following 8 years of marriage. Divorce and alimony law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  Note: this is the second Blog article on this case.

Lori Ann Bates V Stephen Lee Bates – Tennessee Divorce Law – Married 8 years

In the case of Bates v. Bates, the husband appealed the trial courts decree of rehabilitative and in solido alimony, arguing that the wife had misled the court about her actual assets.  The court vacated the alimony according to the husband’s request.  The wife appealed the decision.

Stephen Bates, the husband, and Lori Bates, the wife were granted a divorce decree in November 2010 after eight years of marriage.  They had one child.  The husband purchased the family home before the couple married.  The husband had his own business and worked as a self-employed municipal advisor.  In 2007, after taking night classes for eight years, the wife earned a college degree and started teaching kindergarten.  The same year, the husband purchased a second home.

The trial court found the wife to be the economically disadvantaged spouse and awarded her rehabilitative alimony to enable her to acquire additional education that would help her reach a standard of living comparable to the one she enjoyed when married.   The husband had to pay her $500 a month for 30 months.  In addition, the trial court awarded her $7,500 for lawyer’s fees as alimony in solido, that is, a lump-sum, one time payment.

The husband appealed and argued that he should not have to pay alimony since the wife had access to $200,000 in accounts listed in her name.  The chancery court found for the husband and cancelled the rehabilitative alimony.  The wife appealed this decision.

The lower court granted alimony to the wife based on the Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-121(i).  This Code allows the court to consider the assets of each party at the time of the divorce to determine if the spouse who receives less of the marital property should receive alimony from the spouse who retained more of the marital assets. Initially, the trial court found that the husband left the marriage with more assets, which was a reason to grant her alimony.

This initial breakdown of the assets, however, was incorrect.  In her original testimony, the wife stated that while she had access to accounts listed in her name for her parents’ estate purposes, she would not use that money and considered it her parents’ money.   In testimony given two years later, when the husband filed his appeal, the wife stated that she had borrowed $100,000 from this account, as a “loan,” in order to purchase a new house.   The wife did not submit any papers to prove that this was indeed a loan and her parents did not charge her interest on this “loan.”

The court of appeals upheld the decision of the lower court and ruled that the wife was not entitled to rehabilitative alimony.   The court held that the two most important factors to consider when determining alimony are the disadvantaged spouse’s need and the ability of the obligor spouse to pay the alimony.  In this case, the wife misled the court to believe that she did not have financial means, when in fact, she had access to a large sum of money.

No. M2010-02590-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 26, 2012).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, read Tennessee Alimony Law in Divorce | Answers to FAQs.  Also, for legal updates, news, analysis, and commentary, see our Tennessee Family Law Blog and its Alimony category.  A Memphis divorce lawyer from the Miles Mason Family Law Group can help.  To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.