Hearing Required Before Divorce For Inappropriate Conduct
- At July 29, 2019
- By Miles Mason
- In Divorce Process
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Tennessee case summary on grounds in divorce and inappropriate marital conduct.
Susan Lynn Slagle v. Robert Wayne Slagle
Hearing Required Before Divorce For Inappropriate Marital Conduct
The wife in this Cumberland County, Tennessee, case filed for divorce in 2018. The husband did not file an answer, and the wife made a motion for a default judgment. The husband appeared at the hearing, but did not file anything. Without hearing any proof, the trial court granted the divorce on the founds of inappropriate marital conduct. It later divided the marital property.
The husband filed a motion to set aside the judgment, but this motion was denied. The husband then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The appeals court looked at the relevant Tennessee statute and the cases construing it. Under that statute, a court may grant a default judgment without hearing evidence, but only on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. In this case, however, the grounds for divorce alleged in the complaint were inappropriate marital conduct.
The appeals court held that in such a case, the trial court was required to hear evidence before granting a divorce on those grounds.
For this reason, the Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s judgment and sent the case back for the hearing required by statute. The costs of appeal were assessed equally between both parties.
No. E2018-01633-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 24, 2019).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see The Tennessee Divorce Process: How Divorces Work Start to Finish.
