Facts: When Husband and Wife divorced in 2013, their marital dissolution agreement (“MDA”) provided transitional alimony to Wife that decreased over time and ended when she reached 70. The MDA also has this attorney fee provision:

Husband and Wife agree that if it becomes reasonably necessary for Husband or Wife to institute or defend legal proceedings to enforce any of the provisions of this Agreement, the unsuccessful party of said proceedings shall pay the reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs, and litigation expenses of the successful party of said proceedings. This agreement may be enforced by motion to the court.

Seven years after their divorce, Wife petitioned for Husband to be found in civil contempt for failing to make certain payments required by the MDA. Husband admitted he owed Wife money, but they disagreed on the amount.

A few months later, they agreed on the amount, Husband paid it, and Wife voluntarily dismissed her contempt petition. However, because Wife did not confirm whether this payment satisfied what she believed she was owed, Husband filed a petition for declaratory judgment, seeking an order showing that the amount paid satisfied his obligation.

Discovery ensued. Wife was uncooperative, e.g., she did not appear for depositions, and Husband sought and received discovery sanctions. Husband later amended his petition to request the modification or termination of Wife’s alimony. After the parties agreed on the substantive issues, Husband voluntarily dismissed his request to modify alimony.

Both parties sought an award of attorney’s fees under the MDA: Wife for defending against the petition to modify alimony, and Husband for filing a procedural motion and for responding to Wife’s motion to revise an earlier order.

The trial court found Husband was the prevailing party in the declaratory judgment action and declined to award attorney’s fees to either party.

Wife appealed.

On Appeal: The Court of Appeals reversed in part and affirmed in part.

On appeal, each party asserted that they were the “successful” party under their MDA.

The trial court’s decision about awards of attorney’s fees is within the trial court’s discretion and will be upheld absent an abuse of discretion.

An MDA is a contract entered into by the parties in contemplation of divorce. Once an MDA is approved and accepted by the trial court, it becomes a judgment of the court. The trial court retains the power to modify the MDA relating to statutory issues like child support and alimony; on other issues, the MDA retains its contractual nature. Thus, an MDA may include enforceable contractual provisions regarding an award of attorney’s fees in post-divorce legal proceedings.

The Court found error in the trial court’s finding that Husband’s declaratory judgment action was covered by the attorney’s fee provision in the MDA:

Because Husband instituted these proceedings by filing a declaratory judgment petition, the court was not called upon to “enforce” the MDA. At most, the court would have had the power to enter an order declaring any amount Husband owed Wife. Wife would’ve had the option to seek a judgment against Husband. However, Husband instituting and Wife defending the declaratory judgment action did nothing to enforce the MDA. The declaratory judgment action merely would have “proclaimed” the rights of Wife to an amount from Husband or would have determined that the amount already paid by Husband satisfied his obligation to Wife without ordering execution or performance.

As the declaratory judgment failed to fall under the fee provision of the parties’ MDA, we need not determine whether either party was the “successful party” in the declaratory judgment action. Therefore, we reverse the portion of the [trial] court’s order finding Husband to be the successful party in the declaratory judgment action. However, because an award of attorney’s fees was unavailable under the parties’ MDA, we affirm the portion of the court order declining to award either party fees that resulted from the declaratory judgment action.

Wife argued she was the successful party in the alimony modification. The Court agreed:

The parties’ MDA provided for fee awards in the event it became reasonably necessary to institute or defend any provision of the agreement. When Husband modified his petition to include a request to modify alimony, it became necessary for Wife to defend the terms of the agreement providing her with alimony. Therefore, the MDA was applicable and mandatory.

The next question becomes whether Wife was the successful party. On appeal, Wife argues that she was the successful party because Husband voluntarily dismissed the petition. For his part, Husband argues that the voluntary dismissal meant that there was no prevailing party and, therefore, no fee award was permitted. Our analysis of this issue is guided by our Supreme Court’s recent decision in Colley v. Colley.

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In the present case, when Husband instituted proceedings to modify or terminate Wife’s alimony, Wife shared a similar goal to that of the wife in Colley, i.e., to preserve the status quo and retain her alimony award. When Husband nonsuited the petition, Wife successfully achieved that goal. In other words, Wife successfully achieved her objective of keeping her alimony award. Therefore, under the terms of the parties’ MDA, Wife was the successful party. The trial court, therefore, erred when it failed to award her the reasonable attorney’s fees she incurred defending the petition to modify alimony. The decision of the trial court finding that there was no successful party after Husband nonsuited the alimony modification petition is reversed, and the matter is remanded for a determination of Wife’s reasonable attorney’s fees.

The Court reversed the trial court’s decision in part and affirmed in part. The case was remanded for further proceedings.

K.O.’s Comment: Less than a month after the Colley opinion was issued, it’s already been determinative in another appeal.

Source: Boone v. Boone (Tennessee Court of Appeals, Middle Section, May 23, 2025).

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