Opinion ID: 1793429
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: was the chancellor's award of support unduly burdensome and oppressive to appellant and clearly contrary to the evidence presented?

Text: Mr. Williams argues that the lower court committed manifest error in awarding Mrs. Williams $500 per month as separate maintenance and $750 per month in child support and that those awards are excessive and oppressive. In reviewing this contention, our rule is that the amount of separate maintenance and child support to be awarded is within the sound discretion of the chancellor, whose decision will not be disturbed on appeal except in case of a clear abuse thereof. Thompson v. Thompson, 527 So.2d 617 (Miss. 1988). The amount awarded should provide the wife with the same sort of support and maintenance she would have received if normal cohabitation had continued; however, the allowance should not unduly deplete the husband's estate. Thompson, supra citing Bunkley & Morse's, Amis on Divorce and Separation in Mississippi, § 7.04 (1957). Consideration must be given to the rights of the husband to lead as normal a life as reasonably possible with a decent standard of living. Nichols v. Nichols, 254 So.2d 726, 727 (Miss. 1971). In the present case, the record reveals that Mr. Williams worked as a salesman for a chemical company making a base gross salary of approximately $1,300 per month. Commissions from his sales would from time to time cause this amount to be only slightly greater. Mr. Williams owned, at the time of the hearing, forty percent of his family's now defunct closely-held corporation, Williams' Grocery Company, Inc. Testimony at trial showed the corporate entity to exist in name only, although Williams' Grocery still had cash reserves of approximately $100,000 and property valued at $300,000. However, at the time of the hearing below, the assets of Williams' Grocery were not liquid and appellee failed to submit proof of availability of any funds of the corporation. Mrs. Williams earned a salary of approximately $1,400 per month working as a school teacher. As can be seen above, Mr. Williams' true and readily available income was approximately $1,300 per month less customary and legally mandated deductions such as federal and state income tax and social security premiums. The lower court ordered him to pay in separate maintenance and child support $1,250 per month. Such an award, under these facts, was clearly excessive, and in making such allowance, the lower court manifestly erred.