Facts: Father and Mother, the parents of four children, divorced after 14 years of marriage. Mother was awarded rehabilitative alimony of $2500 per month for 15 years, or $450,000. Father was also ordered to maintain a $350,000 life insurance policy to secure the payment of alimony.
The Court of Appeals reversed the 15-year rehabilitative alimony award as “excessive.” The Court remanded the issue to the trial court to reconsider the amount and duration of alimony.
Father appealed.
On Appeal: The Court of Appeals modified the trial court’s ruling.
Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-5-121(l) allows a court to require an obligor to maintain insurance to secure the payment of alimony.
Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-4-121(e)(2) allows a court to impose a lien on marital property awarded to a party to secure the payment of alimony.
Both of these options — insurance or liens — are discretionary.
The Court held that requiring life insurance of $350,000 to secure the payment of $153,600 was excessive:
Father . . . is securing a $153,600 rehabilitative alimony obligation with $350,000 in life insurance. This discrepancy must be corrected.
[M]other argues strongly that the full, original $350,000 life insurance policy still is needed to secure Father’s overall obligations. That, however, is a post hoc rationale and distorts the purpose of the life insurance as stated in the original judgment. We, therefore, modify the judgment of the [trial] court to reduce Father’s life insurance burden from $350,000 to $153,600.
The trial court’s judgment requiring life insurance to secure the payment of alimony was modified.
K.O.’s Comment: This case follows Stratienko v. Stratienko, where the wife was awarded $540,000 in alimony in solido plus an additional award of $5000 a month of alimony in futuro. The trial court ordered the husband to maintain a $1 million life insurance policy to secure the alimony. The Court of Appeals lowered the life insurance to $500,000 but imposed a lien of $540,000 on the husband’s property to secure the payment of alimony.
Hopwood v. Hopwood (Tennessee Court of Appeals, Middle Section, May 14, 2019).