Mississippi Family Law Blog

12th Judicial District Chancellor starts new Mississippi blog

Judge Larry Primeaux, Chancellor for Lauderdale and Clarke Counties, has started a blog aimed at assisting attorneys practicing in Chancery Court. What a great asset.

Woman's affair revealed by cell phone bills

A Toronto woman was having an affair. She was talking with her boyfriend on her cell phone and had the phone registered in her maiden name. Well, her husband decided to add internet service to the home and called the phone company to add the service. When the next bill came to the house, the woman's cell phone bill was included in the invoice and hubby found a number of long calls to a single number. Suspicious, he called the number and confronted the male voice on the other end of the line who confirmed he was having an affair with his wife. Husband leaves the wife and take their two children. What does the wife do? Sues the cell phone carrier for an invasion of privacy and breach of contract.

Some words of advice to this lady. Don't expect a jury to feel any sympathy for your case. Come on!. You were cheating on your husband, got busted by the phone bills sent to your home, and the best you can come up with is to sue to the phone company. Good luck. I imagine the wife is a bit upset that the husband has all the evidence he needs in his divorce case against the wife.

Read the story here.

Older couples divorcing--is it ever too late?

Sparked by the recent separation of Al and Tipper Gore, both on the verge on collecting social security, a recent Time Magazine article ask whether it is too late in life to divorce. Read the article here. According to the article, "a study of post-40 divorce by the American support group for older people, AARP, found that 60 and 70-year-olds appreciate life after divorce the most of any of the ages, citing a fresh lease of life from forging a new identity."

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

New study ranks 100 U.S. cities most doomed for divorce

Men's Health magazine (I know, not very scientific) published its ranking of cities where couples are most likely to divorce. Among the leaders was the predictable Las Vegas, Nevada, although I think Las Vegas might cause a lot more divorces for out-of-towners. The surprising cities leading the list were Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Billings, Montana. Now, where is your marriage most likely to last? San Jose, California leads the cities of marital bliss, followed by Columbia, South Carolina and El Paso, Texas. Jackson, Mississippi came in at #77 on the list.

You can read the article, Splitsville USA, here.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

In the News--interesting family law issues making headlines

Facebook leads a mother to her kidnapped children 14 years after their father kidnapped the children in violation of a child custody order and took them from California to Florida. Read more here.

Al and Tipper Gore divorcing after 40 years of marriage. Strange one. Read more here.

Online dating service wordsmith for hire. If you use an online dating service, be warned that the witty and charming response you receive may not have be written by your prospective suitor. Here is a story of a guy who makes money writing for those using an online dating service who don't feel comfortable penning their own love letters. This takes outsourcing to a new level, and not in a good way.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Wacky Divorce cases

The internet and newspapers are filled with wacky divorce cases. Here are some wackier ones I read about recently involving celebrities.

• A man in Connecticut is blaming his divorce on Garth Brooks even though his wife never met Garth Brooks. Story here.
• A Pennsylvania women is attempting to divorce Van Halen's David Lee Roth even though they were never married. Story here.
• And of course, Jesse James cheating on Sandra Bullock. What were you thinking?

Reported by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Study says divorce will be reduced with more housework by men

A recent English study found the divorce rate lower among households were husbands performed more housework, did more shopping, and helped with the childcare. Bad news for some guys. Read the story here.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Judge orders Dodger's owner husband to pay wife $637,159 a month

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's divorce just got a bit more expensive. The judge ordered him to pay $637,159 a month in temporary support which includes $225,000 a month in temporary support and $412,159 in upkeep for the seven homes in her name. McCourt had offered to pay $125,000 while his wife was wanting closer to one million a month, according to the article. Many have predicted that the divorce for the couple married 30 years could be one of the costliest divorces.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Lawyer

Fraud on court for misrepresenting value of stock in financial disclosure

In the last post, I spoke about how Mr. Trim had told his wife during their divorce case that his business stock was only worth $100,000. Mrs. Trim agreed to the divorce based on that representation. She later found out her ex-husband seriously undervalued the stock. She got an attorney to file a lawsuit to set aside the divorce agreement so she could get more money given the stock was worth more. That is exactly what the Hinds County Chancery Court did and awarded her more than $150,000.

The husband appealed and the Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed the Chancellor. The Court of Appeals felt the issue of whether the husband misrepresented the value of stock was not not clear. It expressed doubt that Mr. Trim intentionally misrepresented the value of the stock. More importantly, the Court found that Ms. Trim's case fell under 60(b)(1) which required her to file the action within six months after the judgment was entered. Given she had file her case almost four years after the divorce judgment, she was barred from bringing the case. Mrs. Trim appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and affirmed the Chancellor's decision. The Mississippi Supreme Court focused on whether the filing of the financial disclosure by Mr. Trim where he misstated the value of his stock was a "fraud on the court." The Court said it was. A unanimous Court stated:

"We hold that a party's intentional filing of a substantially false Rule 8.05 financial statements constitutes fraud on the court.... We hold that, by intentionally filing a substantially false Rule 8.05 financial disclosure statement, [Mr. Trim] committed a fraud upon the court. Therefore, no time limit constrained the chancellor's ability to modify the divorce judgment to remedy the fraud on the court."

A couple lessons can be learned from this case.

1. Hire an attorney to represent you in a divorce. Mrs. Trim was not represented by an attorney in her divorce and this leads to lesson #2.

2. Be very careful about relying on your soon to be ex-spouse about valuing their property. If Mrs. Trim had requested discovery of any financial statements Mr. Trim had filed in the previous three years, she would have had evidence showing Mr. Trim valued the property much different than the $100,00 he told her it was worth.

3. Understand the Mississippi Supreme Court takes a dim view of those who are not honest in their financial disclosures required by Rule 8.05. Don't misstate what property you have or the value of the property in your financial disclosure.

For a copy of the decision, click here

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Fraud in Mississippi divorce financial disclosure costs spouse well over $150,000 seven years after the divorce

In any divorce in Mississippi, parties are required to complete and exchange financial disclosures under Rule 8.05. In those disclosures, spouses are required to identify all assets and liabilities as well as place a value on those items. That is what occurred in when the Trim's divorced in Hinds County, Mississippi in 2000. The husband owned stock in a closely held business and listed its value at $100,000.00. The wife was not represented by an attorney and no other discovery was conducted during the case. Ultimately, the couple agreed on an irreconcilable divorce and agreed on a division of the property based upon the financial disclosures. The property was the $100,000 stock, $120,000 owned by the wife in her retirement account, and $30,000 equity in the marital home. The couple agreed to split their assets equally with the wife keeping her retirement account plus $5,000 of the equity in the home while the husband kept his stock and the marital home.

The problems started for the husband a year after the divorce when his business relationship with his partner soured and he was "squeezed out" of the company. As a result, he filed suit in Madison Chancery Court seeking to dissolve the company. Well, the critical aspect of dissolving a company is valuing it. During the trial of this case, experts offered differing values of the company, but ultimately, the Chancellor adopted the value offered by the ex-husband's expert, $1,186,000.00. That's a big difference between the $100,000 he told his wife the stock was worth when they divorced. That is where the problem arose. Either the value of the business had dramatically increased since the divorce or Mr. Trim had seriously undervalued his stock on the financial disclosure to this wife.

The ex-Mrs. Trim thought the latter and filed a lawsuit in 2004 to set aside the property settlement due to fraud on Mr. Trim's part. Normally, setting aside a divorce settlement four years later is a serious uphill battle. Mississippi Rule 60(b) states, in part, that if a party seeks to set aside a judgment based on fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party, such motion must be filed within six months after the judgment was entered. However, Rule 60(b) also states that "This rule does not limit the power of a court to entertain an independent action to relieve a party from a judgment, order, or proceeding, or to set aside a judgment for fraud upon the court."

So in order for Mrs. Trim to prevail, she had to show the misrepresentation of the value of the stock by Mr. Trim was a "fraud on the court" given she filed her action almost four years after the divorce.

After a hearing before Hinds County Chancellor DeWayne Thomas, the Chancellor found Mr. Trim misstated the value of his stock during the original divorce proceedings. The Chancellor valued the stock at $694,000, subtracted the $100,000 originally equitably distributed during the divorce and awarded Mrs. Trim twenty-five percent of the $594,000 plus attorney fees and costs. Part of the Chancellor's decision was based upon personal financial statements submitted to a Bank in 1999 valuing his stock at $1,100,000 and another one in December, 2000, valuing the stock at $1,837,500. Although the Chancellor did not feel Mr. Trim committed fraud upon the court, he did think the misrepresentation of the stock value was so egregious, he had the equitable power to set aside the original judgment under Rule 60(b)(6), which says the judgment can be set aside for "any other reason justifying relief from the judgment." This portion of 60(b) does not have the six month time limit found in 60(b)(1-3).

Mr. Trim appealed the decision. Stay tuned to see what the Mississippi Court of Appeals and Mississippi Supreme Court say about this decision.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Court allows father to take daughter to church

In a follow-up to a previous post, a Chicago family court judge found that a father could take his daughter to Catholic church services despite the Jewish mother's objections. The judge said that taking the 3-year-old girl to church during his visitation did her no harm.

You can read more about the case here.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Visa predicts divorce by purchase history

ABC news is reporting that Visa can predict your likelihood of getting a divorce. According to the article, along with other behaviors, Visa can predict the likelihood of a couple getting a divorce by their purchases. While not concerned about whether folks are getting a divorce, Visa worries that those going through a divorce will not pay their credit card bill.

Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Lawyer

Dodger owners spending more on divorce than infield salaries Celebrity, high-profile divorces always bring out the worst in some folks. Well, the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers are going through a rather nasty, public divorce and have testified in depositions that the legal and accountant fees for the divorce could be as high as 19 million dollars. Unbelievable. In one recent hearing, seven attorneys showed up, according to a news report. Both Frank and Jamie McCourt have hired multiple law firms to represent them in their divorce. If they end up spending that much money on lawyers and accountants, it will be one of the most expensive divorces in California history. Information provided by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Court to decide sanctions over claims Barr lied under oath and destroyed evidence In a follow-up to an earlier post, famous mystery writer Nevada Barr was back in a Hinds County Chancery courtroom today to face possible sanctions for lying under oath and destruction of evidence in her previous divorce case. According to the Clarion-Ledger, Barr admits she lied about her affair during her deposition. However, she also admitted she destroyed her computer when the other side sought its production. This is serious stuff and the call for whether she should be sanctioned came from the Mississippi Supreme Court in its decision on Barr's case. Then presiding Justice Oliver Diaz wrote:

"When faced with such egregious misconduct, courts are obligated to consider sanctions that are severe enough to deter others from pursuing similar courses of action. The chancellor in this case did not satisfy that obligation and abused his discretion by not addressing Nevada's misconduct."

Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas will decide Barr's fate. Source: Clarion-Ledger Reported by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Attorney

Text messages and e-mails leave a trail for divorce lawyers to follow It appears there are many lessons to learn from Tiger Woods recent publicized problems. One is the hazards of text messaging with a paramour while you are married. The New York Times recently published an article entitled, "Text messages: Digital lipstick on the collar." The article highlights the problem of texting if you are doing something you shouldn't be doing and how that evidence can and will be used against you in court. Several recent high-profile cases highlight the problems faced by spouses engaged in adultery in this digital world. The Kisselburgh Law Firm represents individuals in divorces in Mississippi. If you or a loved one is contemplating a divorce, contact us to further discuss your legal rights.