Opinion ID: 1697830
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Employment of Each Parent and the Responsibilities of Each Parent.

Text: ¶ 42. Concerning the employment of each parent, the chancellor found as follows: The Court heard that Husband has been a certified licensed plumber since 1993, and has been employed with [Morgan] Plumbing for over three (3) years. His regular hours are 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., but he has some flexibility if he needs to take off. The Court was presented with evidence that Wife has had several jobs with the last being a self-employed painter and employee at Park Place Entertainment for the past several months. She was not employed fore [sic] several months between 2001 and 2002. The Court must weigh this factor for Husband. The chancellor's findings regarding Tom's employment were based on Tom's own testimony. Jane argues that the chancellor erred in making this finding because Tom was not actually a licensed plumber. She sought to raise this supposed error in her Amended Motion for New Trial and/or Amendment of Judgment via an attached letter from a Tunica County Permit Clerk, which indicated that Tom had not been licensed as a plumber in Tunica County since February 2000. The chancellor denied Jane's motion, ruling that the evidence she sought to introduce was available at the time of trial, that the evidence at trial established that Tom worked as a plumber, and that the Revised Decree for Divorce would remain undisturbed. Jane now complains that because Tom did not testify about his licensure until the last day of trial, she did not have ample opportunity to go to the clerk's office and retrieve the records to impeach him. ¶ 43. Jane essentially seeks to create an issue where there is none. While the chancellor's finding may be incorrect regarding Tom being licensed, given that there is at least some post-trial evidence casting doubt on Tom's licensure as a plumber, the testimony at trial still shows that Tom has maintained a steady job with regular hours for the last three plus years, which is clearly what the chancellor found to be most relevant. ¶ 44. Jane also contends that the chancellor erred in finding that she was unemployed for several months, claiming that the testimony does not support such a finding. During the July 17, 2002 hearing, Jane testified that she was self-employed as a painter, she restored furniture, and she would be working as a guide during the upcoming hunting season. At that same hearing, Jackie Tucker testified that Jane had previously lost her job at the WIC center, although she claimed that she quit so she could spend more time with Catherine. She was presumably without employment during the roughly one month's time that she was in drug rehabilitation during July and August of 2002. At the October 28, 2002 hearing, Jane's father testified that his daughter had just started working at the Tunica Gin and he did not know how long it had been since she had previously held a job. Jane's mother testified at the hearing on March 25, 2003, that Jane had been employed most of the time since the summer of 2002, after she left rehabilitation. She also testified at that same hearing that she was not aware of Jane presently being employed anywhere, she had worked at Tunica Gin until December of 2002, and she had done some furniture refinishing for various people. At the hearing on June 24, 2003, Jane testified that she was currently working for Park Place Entertainment and had been there for almost three months. She also testified that she had been unemployed prior to getting the job with Park Place, she had previously worked at the Tunica Gin, but was unaware of how long she had been unemployed prior to starting her current job. She also admitted there had been periods of time in the past when she was not drawing an income of any kind. ¶ 45. While the evidence may not have shown she was without any employment for months at a time, the testimony from the various hearings does show that Jane held jobs sporadically, often on a seasonal basis only, and that she had gone through periods when she had no income at all. The chancellor heard this testimony and determined that Tom's work situation was more stable than that of Jane, who as of the date of the final hearing, had been in her current job less than three months. We find that Tom clearly had more stability in his employment; this was reflected in the chancellor's finding; and he did not abuse his discretion in finding Tom to be the favored parent under this Albright factor.