Luplow v. Luplow, 450 S.W.3d 105 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2014).
Premarital Property Remained Separate Property Regardless of Couple Securing Line of Credit score
Mary Lisa Gaston Luplow and Martin Luplow have been married in 1983 and had two youngsters. In 2010, the spouse filed a grievance for divorce in Davidson County, Tennessee, alleging inappropriate marital conduct and irreconcilable variations. The husband filed a counterclaim, alleging the identical grounds. After numerous pretrial orders, a trial was held in 2012 earlier than Choose Phillip R. Robinson, and a remaining judgment was entered. Each events appealed to the Tennessee Court docket of Appeals. The husband appealed the classification of 1 piece of actual property, which the trial courtroom had discovered to be the spouse’s separate property.
After addressing different points, the appeals courtroom turned to the standing of the actual property which the spouse had inherited when her father died. The husband argued that this property had transmuted right into a marital asset as a result of they took out a line of credit score in opposition to the property, and since he had paid a portion of the property taxes in the course of the pendency of the divorce. The decrease courtroom had discovered that the property had not transmuted, and the appeals courtroom famous that it is a factual dedication that has a presumption of correctness. It examined the proof and concluded that the proof didn’t preponderate in opposition to the trial courtroom’s findings.
The husband additionally argued that he had paid the taxes on the parcel one yr, however the Court docket of Appeals additionally held that this issue was inadequate to transmute the property.
Although the appeals courtroom agreed that this property was the spouse’s, it didn’t agree with the disposition of the road of credit score secured by the property. The decrease courtroom had discovered that the road of credit score in opposition to this property was solely the spouse’s accountability. However since each events had incurred this debt, the Court docket of Appeals held that it was a joint obligation.
For extra dialogue of this case, see TN Husband Must Pay for Workplace Malfeasance in Divorce.
This put up is a part of a sequence, Appreciation of Separate Property: The Forensic Accountant’s Full Employment Act.
