Husband Awarded Larger Portion of Marital Residence Equity

Tennessee case summary on property division in divorce.

Joanne Ackerman v. Scott Ackerman

The husband and wife in this Sequatchie County, Tennessee, case were married in 2011 in Florida and had no children together, although they both had children from prior relationships.  After four years of marriage, they moved to Tennessee after liquidating their retirement accounts.  They used the money to buy unimproved land and installed a new mobile home.  They also obtained jobs in Tennessee.  In 2016, problems arose in the marriage, and the wife moved back to Florida with her children.  The husband continued to reside in the marital home in Tennessee, and obtained a loan for $25,000 secured by the property.

The husband filed for divorce in 2017, and the case went to trial before Judge Justin C. Angel.

The trial court awarded the property to the husband and ordered the debt divided between the parties.  The wife was awarded 25% of the net equity, minus her half of the debt, a total of about $9,500.  The wife then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court started by analyzing the equity in the home.   The lower court had largely based its finding on the basis that the husband had made the larger contribution to the purchase of the property.  The wife argued that the lower court had misapplied this factor, due to not taking into consideration the wife’s economic status at the time of the marriage.  However, the appeals court noted that much of the evidence was disputed, and deferred to the lower court’s greater ability to make credibility determinations.  The appeals court also agreed that the lower court had reviewed the correct time frame in assessing the parties’ financial contributions to the marriage.

The appeals court did agree with the wife that the lower court had miscomputed her equity.  It awarded her a portion of the net equity, but then subtracted out her share of the loan.  Therefore, it essentially subtracted the loan amount twice, and the appeals court agreed this was error.  It therefore increased her award to approximately $21,000.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded the case.

No. M2019-00211-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Sept. 24, 2019).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Property Division in Tennessee Divorce.