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Roth v. Roth3/20/2001
This appeal involves the dissolution of a sixteen-year marriage. The wife filed suit in the Circuit Court for Sumner County seeking a divorce and custody of the parties' three children. The husband did not contest the divorce but requested custody of the parties' two older children. Following a bench trial, the trial court awarded the wife a divorce on the ground of adultery and granted her custody of the children. On this appeal, the husband takes issue with the trial court's valuation of marital property, the allocation of marital debt, and the award of long- term spousal support. We have concluded that the trial court's decisions regarding the valuation of the marital property should be modified but that the remainder of the judgment should be affirmed.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Modified and Affirmed
William C. Koch, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Ben H. Cantrell, P.J., M.S., and William B. Cain, J., joined.
OPINION
Richard Daniel Roth and Karen Elaine Roth met in 1980 when they were both stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Dr. Roth is a dentist, and Ms. Roth a nurse. Dr. Roth did not inform Ms. Roth that he was married when they first began dating. Sometime later, Dr. Roth told Ms. Roth that he and his wife were estranged. Dr. Roth and his then- wife were later divorced, and in June 1981, the parties married in Rome, Georgia.
The parties moved to Enterprise, Alabama where Dr. Roth completed his service obligation. While living there, Ms. Roth obtained a masters degree in nursing from the University of Alabama. The parties' first child was born there in November 1982. Following the completion of Dr. Roth's military service, the parties moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where Dr. Roth bought an existing dental practice with the assistance of a $30,000, no-interest loan from his father. Ms. Roth was employed full- time, except for a brief period in July 1985 when the parties' second child was born.
In December 1985, Dr. Roth sold his dental practice, and the parties moved to Tennessee in 1986 where Dr. Roth took a job at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Nashville. Ms. Roth obtained employment teaching nursing at Volunteer State Community College. Dr. Roth's father continued to assist the parties financially by extending the term of his loan to Dr. Roth and by giving them $40,000 which the parties used, at least in part, to pay down the mortgage on their home.
Ms. Roth gave birth to the parties' third child in April 1988 but continued to teach nursing full-time at Volunteer State Community College.
Ms. Roth was injured in 1989 when a dump truck collided with her automobile. Her injuries required surgery and have caused her to continue to experience pain in her leg and back. She eventually settled her personal injury claim for $123,000 and deposited the proceeds of the settlement into the parties' joint account at First American National Bank. Ms. Roth has not worked full-time since the accident. While her physician has not placed any restrictions on her activities, she works only two days per week at Cumberland University. She continues to take anti-inflammatory drugs and anti-depressants to control her pain. She has not sought full-time employment as a nurse because she believes that practicing or teaching nursing would require her to lift patients or stand for extended periods of time and that both of these activities would be painful to her.
The parties' relationship began to deteriorate in 1996. They began to have heated arguments that sometimes escalated into violent outbursts by Dr. Roth. Ms. Roth eventually discovered
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