Court Opinion

ID: 9853481
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:49:29.267008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:49.725605
License: Public Domain

Bussey, Justice
(dissenting):
Being unable to concur in the majority opinion with respect to the issue of alimony and child support, I most respectfully dissent. In my view, the lower court has been most considerate of the appellant husband, did not err, and the decree should be affirmed in its entirety. Additional facts are essential to a full understanding.
In 1967, the husband made two crucial decisions, one laudable and one far therefrom. He decided to change his occupation for a more remunerative one, and, more or less contemporaneously therewith, decided to abandon his wife and child, without the slightest excuse or provocation whatsoever, for another woman with whom he was engaged in adulterous conduct. The decree below most charitably granted a divorce on desertion, although the adultery was not even denied. In oral argument, it was stated by counsel, without objection, that the husband has, since the decree, married his adulterous consort and that they are now domiciled in a twenty thousand dollar home in Greenville. Aside from such and on the record before us, I conclude that we are confronted with a typical case wherein a husband is expending his assets and income to provide for himself and his new found love, but contends that he is unable to adequately contribute to the support of his abandoned wife and child.
In 1967, and for some years prior thereto, the husband was employed by Republic Steel Corporation, for which concern he worked nine months during the year 1967, earning, according to his own testimony, the sum of $8,100.00, or $900.00 per month. Had he seen fit to continue such employment, his earning capacity for the year 1967, calculated pro rata, would have amounted to $10,800.00. On or about October 1, 1967, he went into business for himself as a manufacturer’s representative, purchasing an existing *496agency from a man already in the business in Greenville, for the sum of $900.00. He contends, and there is no testimony to the contrary, that he earned no money, but, in fact, took something of a loss during the remaining three months of 1967. He was, however, not without assets and his wife was perfectly willing to remain with him and undergo any economic disadvantages attendant upon his becoming established in business, provided he would give up his adulterous consort. This he declined to do.
As reflected in the majority opinion, the initial order for separate support and maintenance required the husband to pay a total of $350.00 per month, but he did not fully comply therewith and the order was subsequently modified, because of his new business venture, to allow him to pay only $200.00 per month for three months during the summer of 1968, he being required, however, to resume payment at the rate of $350.00 per month thereafter. This order was only partially complied with, and the husband was substantially in default at the time of the final hearing herein. The evidence reflects that a quite substantial portion of the total paid the wife was, in effect, paid with funds of the wife, wrongfully in the hands of the husband.
He offers, to my mind, a rather distorted picture in an attempt to show inability to adequately provide for his wife and child whom he abandoned under the foregoing circumstances. Admittedly, his gross cash income from the business for the year 1968 was in the amount of, $9,938.12, and he contends that he only netted a little over $4,000.00, after deducting business expenses. Included in his alleged business expenses was an item for business use of his apartment, which, while deductible for income tax purposes, has no true bearing on the amount of money available for the support of himself and his dependents. When this item is eliminated, his total remaining claimed expenses amounted to $4,886.41, leaving him a cash income collected during the year 1968 of $5,051.71.
*497Several exhibits concerning the financial affairs of the husband were before the lower court but are not contained in the record on appeal. His testimony as to his claimed business expense is uncorroborated, and, since he had no office, there is at least grave doubt as to whether he had legitimate business expenses in the claimed amount of $4,-886.41. The only items mentioned in his testimony were automobile expense and entertainment expense. Even from his testimony, however, it appears that during approximately the calendar year 1968 he had for his support and that of his dependents the following items:
Cash earned net income.................. $5,051.71
Income tax refund ...................... 500.00
Proceeds of sale of wife’s car, retained by husband ............................. 950.00
Proceeds of sale of lake lot................ 750.00
Joint savings account of husband an wife, used by husband .......................... 1,339.00
Total ................................. $8,590.71
By simple subtraction, had he fully complied with the order of the lower court, which he did not, he would have had remaining for his personal use during the calendar year 1968, $4,690.71.
In addition to the foregoing items, the record does reflect total borrowings by the husband of some $3,900.00, in several transactions, between October 1, 1967 and December 31, 1968. Of the borrowed amounts, there is no showing that any portion thereof went into the business except for $900.00 for the purchase thereof, and the undisclosed price of a 1965 Ford for business use. Understandably, some portion of the borrowed money may well have been used to pay some of his personal expenses and obligations during the first three months of his business venture. Whether the proceeds of any of these loans were or were not used to pay off other loans; just how much was borrowed, against the *498earned commissions hereinafter mentioned, and the actual total amount of the husband’s indebtedness at the time of the hearing are all matters not clearly disclosed by the record.
While his cash income from his business, according to his figures, only amounted to $5,051.71 for the year 1968, he had in addition thereto fully earned but not yet payable, accrued commissions in the amount of $8,000.00. True, some portions thereof would not actually be received for some months hence, but he gave only one illustration of a $400.00 item that would not be paid for some eighteen or twenty months. Suffice it to say, that these earned commissions, however, were sufficiently fixed and certain assets that he was able to borrow money upon them from a bank. If we give a liberal discount to these earned but yet unpaid commissions, and endeavor to arrive at a cash value of such at the time of the hearing, we would certainly arrive at a figure of not less than $6,000.00, which added to the cash income already admittedly received by him, results in net earnings of at least $11,000.00 during the calendar year 1968.
His own testimony is that his business is improving and that he anticipated earning at least $8,000.00 in the year 1969. His attitude demonstrated on the hearing was that he shouldn’t support at all the wife whom he deserted, and that he only desired to pay a rather minimal amount for the support of his child.
As a result of the misconduct of the husband, the wife has been compelled to establish a new home in an apartment for herself and her child, and to go to work to earn a livelihood for herself and child. A decent apartment for herself and her child in the Charlotte area quite understandably costs her $150.00 per month. It is a matter of common knowledge that, but for her child, her apartment rent and incidental expenses thereof could be cut in half, since it is most usual for a working woman, who has no children, to share an apartment with another working woman. To be able to work and earn a living for them, she was and is *499faced with an expenditure of $90.00 per month, even during the school year, and more during the vacation months, to provide custodial care for the child. Before proceeding to consider support of herself and other needs of her child, she is confronted with an expenditure of $165.00 per month, additional rent and custodial expense, strictly on the child’s account.
It is true that the order of the lower court made no specific mention of the wife’s earning capacity, but it is, to my mind, crystal clear that such was taken into full consideration by the court in the final decree, as well as the other orders of the court fixing the amounts which the court from time to time sought to require the husband to pay. The husband was required to pay only $200.00 per month for three months during the year 1968. Despite the court order, he never resumed payment at the rate of $350.00 per month and was even in default in the payment of $200.00 per month at the time of the final hearing. Since rent alone cost the wife $150.00 per month, she would have been receiving from the husband only $50.00 per month for the other support of herself and child had the $200.00 payments been regularly made. Obviously, the major portion of their support had to come from the earnings of the wife. Again, in the final decree the husband was ordered to pay only $250.00 per month for the first six months, and on this figure the wife would have received, above rent, $100.00 per month for the support of herself and child, if she did not work, and only $10.00 per month if she did work. Again, obviously the major portion of the support of both wife and child had to come from the earnings of the wife. Upon payment being made at the rate of $350.00 per month, the wife’s situation will, of course, be improved, but the figures clearly show that such amount will still be insufficient to adequately provide for both wife and child in the absence of the wife working, and that a large measure of their support still has to be earned by the wife. The $250.00 payments for the six months period were barely adequate to support the child alone, let alone provide *500anything for the support of the wife. The facts and figures, to my mind, make it crystal clear that the wife’s earnings were fully considered by the trial court at every stage of the proceeding.
The husband testified that he expected net income for the year 1969 in the amount of $8,000.00, and, under all of the evidence, I regard such as the very minimum of his earning capacity. Based on such, however, let us examine the relative situations of the parties during the first six months following the divorce decree, calculated, however, on an annual basis.
Husband’s net income.................... $8,000.00
Payments for benefit of wife and child...... 3,000.00
Net for use of husband, subject to income tax $5,000.00
Payments from husband.................. $3,000.00
Wife’s income.......................... $4,342.00
Total for wife and child.................. $7,342.00
The husband testified that his necessary personal expenses amounted to $3,420.00 per year, and $5,000.00 per annum should leave him ample money, after payment of all income taxes, to provide for his needs. The amount paid by the husband as alimony to the wife is deductible for him for income tax purposes, but taxable to the wife, which results in her having net somewhat less than the figure above mentioned. After all expenses for, and made necessary by, the child are paid, the innocent wife would obviously have less remaining for her personal support than the guilty husband. These last calculations do not take into consideration the increase of $100.00 per month ordered to take effect on October 1, 1969, but, from the record before us, the trial judge had every reason to believe, from the evidence, that the actual income of the husband during the year 1969 would be substantially more than $8,000.00.
But for the unprofitable hiatus of the first three months of the new business venture, under any view of the evidence, *501it is clear that the husband, during the calendar years 1967 and 1968, had an earning capacity of approximately $11,-000.00 per annum. With his business admittedly improving and prospering, there was no reason whatever to believe that he would not make at least $11,000.00 in the calendar year 1969.
If, perchance, the husband in the meantime has met with adverse circumstances beyond his control, the door of the court is always open to him to seek a modification, but in the absence of clear proof that he is unable, due to circumstances beyond his control, to adequately provide for the wife and child whom he had abandoned, it is high time for persons such as the husband here to learn that they cannot, without just cause or excuse, abandon a wife and child and expend both substance and income on a new found love, while ignoring previously incurred lawful and moral obligations.
It might not be amiss to point out that, should any modification be sought, the husband’s primary obligation and responsibilty is to the wife and child whom he abandoned, and that any right or claim which his second wife might have, particularly under the circumstances of this case, is junior and secondary to such primary obligation. Being convinced that there was no error whatever, I would unhesitatingly affirm the judgment of the lower court in full.