Case ID: so2d_397/html/0846-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "REDMANN, Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Richard H. NIELSEN v. Rosalie Grace Gauthe NIELSEN.
    No. 11798.
    Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
    April 7, 1981.
    James L. Cannella, Donelon, Cannella & Donelon, Metairie, for plaintiff-appellant.
    Robert A. Pitre, Jr., Gretna, for defendant-appellee.
    Before REDMANN, GULOTTA and SCHOTT, JJ.
   REDMANN, Judge.

An ex-husband appeals from a judgment refusing to terminate or reduce alimony.

The ex-husband had had business reverses but is now employed for $2,900 gross monthly. He has remarried and his wife has modest earnings; he has adopted her teenage daughter.

The ex-wife took employment as a school bus driver beginning September 1979 from which her 1979 federal income tax return, prepared by a professional preparer, shows she had gross income of $7,312.81 and employee expenses of $4,413.23 (presumably including all expenses and depreciations). Her adjusted gross of $2,899.58 for that four-month period means she averaged $724.89 monthly. If she earns $724.89 monthly during the nine months of the school year, that would average $543 or less per month when spread over the 12 months of the calendar year. Included in her expenses are $278 house note and unusual medical expenses ($166) allegedly attributable to cancer.

We cannot find an abuse of the trial court’s discretion in fixing reasonable alimony at $500.

Affirmed.