There is no set formula for an award of alimony in Tennessee. Instead, the judge has wide discretion in deciding the nature, amount, and duration of an alimony award to balance the reasonable need of the disadvantaged spouse with the obligor spouse’s actual ability to pay. The length of the marriage is another very important factor in the alimony analysis. Alimony is therefore decided on a case-by-case basis.
A recent interesting case is Chase v. Chase (2022; No. E2021-01300-COA-R3-CV). In Chase, the husband was a practicing plastic surgeon making $1 million per year. The wife was a licensed pharmacist but had been out of the workforce for 20 years and had some physical issues that impacted her ability to return to work. The trial court found that a reasonable estimate of the wife’s earning ability was just $50,000 annually. The court also decided it was reasonable for the wife to need $11,460 per month to maintain her comfortable standard of living. To fill the gap in her budget, the court ordered the husband to pay the wife $7,000 per month forever, plus three years of rehabilitative alimony of $1,600 per month.
The husband argued without success that he should not have to pay because the wife also received $2 million in marital assets in the divorce. The court was unpersuaded because the wife would not receive a significant income stream from the assets. Further, the wife was 52 years old, and she would not be able to access the portion of her assets in retirement funds for some time.
Such permanent or lifetime alimony awards have become less common, but the Chase case reminds us that every divorce is unique and the ultimate alimony award comes down to the discretion of the judge after hearing about one party’s reasonable need versus the other spouse’s actual ability to pay.
The contents of this post do not constitute legal advice or suggest any outcome of your individual case. You should seek the advice of an attorney based on the facts and circumstances of your case before taking any action.
