Opinion ID: 1833353
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Whether the chancellor erred in his award of attorney fees to Brenda.

Text: ¶ 26. Though the general rule in Mississippi is that if a party is financially able to pay his attorney's fees he should do so, this is a matter which is entrusted to the chancellor's sound discretion. Pittman v. Pittman, 652 So.2d 1105, 1112 (Miss.1995). See also Hankins v. Hankins, 729 So.2d 1283 (Miss.1999) (we held that it is an abuse of discretion for a trial court to award costs and attorney's fees without a showing that the payee is unable to pay the fees at issue). In Pittman, the husband, James, tried to convey the marital home to his sister and niece in an effort to hide an asset that would properly have been considered marital property and, as such, subject to equitable distribution. Id. The wife, Claudine, was forced to bring a separate suit in order to stop the proceedings regarding the transfer of the house. Id. The chancellor awarded Claudine $1,500.00 in legal fees after concluding that James's conduct in trying to convey the house to his sister and niece warranted the imposition of said fees. Id. Claudine was not rewarded by the chancellor's decision, but only reimbursed the extra legal costs incurred as a result of James' actions. Id. Even though Claudine did not prove her inability to pay her attorney's fees, we held that the chancellor was not manifestly wrong and that his decision to award attorney fees did not constitute error. Id. ¶ 27. In the instant case, Brenda did not prove that she could not pay her attorney fees, nor did she have to bring a separate suit with regard to the marital assets. However, Ken's purposeful acts of hiding money and assets prolonged the litigation. Much time and effort was spent in attempting to locate the assets that Ken had hidden. The chancellor even had to halt litigation so the parties could travel out-of-town to secure assets which Ken admitted in his testimony that he had hidden. This should not have occurred, as Ken's responses to discovery and interrogatories should have disclosed all of the assets. We held in Vicksburg Ref., Inc. v. Energy Resources, Ltd., 512 So.2d 901 (Miss.1987), that [w]hen counsel's carelessness causes his opponent to expend time and money needlessly, it is not an abuse of discretion for the court to require offending counsel to pay for his mistake, especially where ... out-of-town travel was involved. Id. at 902. ¶ 28. Ken states that he does not mind paying expenses associated with the trip to Petal, Mississippi, on November 12, 1997, to inventory the assets located there. He also says that he has no objection to paying attorney fees stemming from the same day as long as they relate to discovering, preparing for and responding to [his] attempts to secret [sic] marital assets. However, Ken maintains that the itemization provided by Brenda's attorneys is not detailed enough for anyone to be able to discern whether the activities listed relate to the hidden marital assets. The itemization of fees earned in relation to Ken's attempt to hide assets from Brenda including the affidavit of Jerry L. Mills is listed as Appeal Exhibit 112 and though lengthy, it does not appear to be accurate or complete. For example, the very first entry in Exhibit A reads as follows, Receive and Review Hensarlings [sic] Motion to Modify Amount of Maintenance. It is not logical that Ken should have to pay for this. Even if he had disclosed all of his assets to begin with, he could still have filed a Motion to Modify Amount of Maintenance; there is no way to prove that his actions would have been any different had all the assets been known from the start. Item 22, dated June 3, 1997, simply says Subpoena issued. Who was subpoenaed? Why were they subpoenaed? A listing of time spent determin[ing] whether assets accumulated during the marriage are still available and investigat[ion][of] possible diversion of assets through the purchase and holding of cashiers [sic] checks, has no heading or signature. It is seemingly a copy of a bill to Brenda, but it is unclear who rendered these services. The exhibits accompanying Mills's affidavit are replete with similar errors. ¶ 29. We find the chancellor's award of $20,000 is arbitrary. A total of all of the expenses listed in Exhibit A comes to $30,909.07. The chancellor said only that the award was to reimburse Brenda for attorney fees related to Ken's missing 1997 W-2 and to partially reimburse her for the legal expense incurred through discovery attempts and trial preparation following actual delivery of the requested information, and for the hearings on the motions for contempt filed against Ken. He did not specify how the award correlated to the expenses incurred by Brenda, As the original figure was arbitrary in nature, we cannot determine by how much the award should be reduced. ¶ 30. The chancellor stated in his amended opinion that the $20,000 he awarded Brenda was also to partially compensate her for the expense of her attorney in prosecuting the various contempt motions[.] Ken argues that as an order was never issued holding him in contempt that it constitutes error for the judge to give Brenda expenses for motions which were never decided in her favor. As for the portion of the $20,000 which the chancellor awarded as a result of the motions for contempt brought by Brenda, we agree with Ken. Per our holding in Varner v. Varner, 666 So.2d 493 (Miss.1995), the trial court must make a factual finding of contempt before attorney fees may be considered. Id. at 498. No order was ever entered on any of the motions for contempt, therefore, it was erroneous for the chancellor to award attorney fees based on the motions for contempt. ¶ 31. We hereby reverse and remand this issue to the trial court so that it can make an on the record finding as to the allocation of the award and a reduction of said award consistent with this opinion.