Court Opinion

ID: 9773415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:45:02.657894+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:53.536600
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring in part; dissenting in part. I dissent from that part of the majority’s decision that affirms the chancellor’s award of alimony in the sum of $10.00 per year. Obviously, the factors that justify an award of alimony were not existent here, see Alexander v. Alexander, 241 Ark. 741, 410 S.W.2d 136 (1967), or else the chancellor would have awarded a reasonable amount. The sole reason for the $10.00 award was to allow the chancellor to retain jurisdiction of this cause for the purpose of making an award of alimony in the future. The chancellor’s action was clearly contrary to Ford v. Ford, 272 Ark. 506, 616 S.W.2d 3 (1981), where this court held that our statutory law requires the divorce decree to allow or disallow alimony and that the decree cannot retain jurisdiction for the purpose of allowing or disallowing it in the future based on changed conditions. The majority court now chooses to overrule Ford, and I disagree. Because a court’s award of alimony is dependent upon statutory law, my view is that the Ford holding was correct, since it was based upon this court’s clear interpretation of Ark. Stat. Ann. § 34-1211 (Supp. 1985), now compiled as Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-312 (1987). See Woods v. Woods, 285 Ark. 175, 686 S.W.2d 387 (1985) (wherein court discusses statutory history for basis of alimony in Arkansas). If the rule now is that the trial court may reserve the alimony question and leave it open for anytime in the future, that court surely needs to be required to give a reason for doing so. From my review of the record, I fail to see any reason for expecting that this appellant will ever be in a position to pay alimony. He became an attorney in 1974, and he apparently made as much as $22,800.00 per year, his gross earnings in 1985. Since June 1986, he has averaged $81.00 per week, and the parties are now in bankruptcy. The parties have four minor children, and their children have had medical and other problems, which pose a continuing stress on the parents in raising them. Undoubtedly, appellee is in desperate need, as is reflected by her doing maid work and receiving food stamps. Even apart from the financial strife involved, she testified to acts of physical and mental abuse. Nevertheless, none of these factors add up to awarding alimony, and based upon the parties’ history, an alimony award is not a realistic expectation for anytime in the foreseeable future. Thus, even if I could agree with the majority that a chancellor may reserve the question of alimony for the future, the power and authority to do so should not be unfettered and should not be extended to circumstances such as those we now have before us. Hickman, J., joins in this opinion.