Eckstein v. Eckstein, 1703
| Decision Date | 26 August 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 1703,1703 |
| Court | South Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | Constance O. ECKSTEIN, Appellant, v. James Allen ECKSTEIN, Respondent. . Heard |
Charles W. Jones, Spartanburg, for appellant.
J. Bruce Foster, and John B. White, Jr., Spartanburg, for respondent.
Phillip K. Sinclair, Jr., Spartanburg, for guardian ad litem.
Appellant-wife, Constance O. Eckstein brought this action against respondent husband, James Allen Eckstein seeking among other things, a divorce, child custody and support, alimony, equitable distribution and attorney's fees. From an order of the family court, the wife appeals the equitable division , child support and attorney's fees awards and a limitation placed on her award of child custody. We affirm in part and vacate in part.
The parties were married August 30, 1980 and have two children who were born in March 1986 and June 1988. The wife has a B.S. degree in engineering from the University of Oklahoma and was employed as an engineer with Monsanto from the beginning of the marriage until February 1987 at which time she left to work for her husband's business, Eckstein Signs. At the time she left Monsanto, the wife was earning between $35,000 and $40,000 annually. The wife quit work in May, 1988, shortly before the birth of their second child. The parties moved to Spartanburg in July of 1981 and the husband, who has a twelfth grade education, started the Eckstein Sign business in September of 1982. In November 1988, the wife filed an action for separate maintenance but later amended her complaint seeking a divorce on the ground of adultery. The husband admitted post-separation adultery and the court granted the wife a divorce on that basis.
Following a hearing on the matter, the family court awarded custody of the two minor children to the wife and ordered the husband to pay child support of $538.00 per month based on the child support guidelines, taking into consideration the husband's gross income of $2,168.27 per month and the wife's ability to earn gross income of $2,833.33 per month. The court further placed a limitation on the wife's custody, requiring the wife to reside within a 250 mile radius of Spartanburg. The trial judge equitably divided the marital property awarding each party a 50% interest, and valued the sign business at $80,000.00. He further awarded the wife $1,000.00 in attorney's fees.
During the pendency of this appeal, the husband petitioned for a change of custody, child support and alimony based on a change of circumstances in that the wife had moved to Huntsville, Alabama and was employed at Boeing Aerospace Company as an engineer. As a result of a family court order on husband's petition, the wife has stipulated the only issues left on appeal are the limitation of child custody, attorney's fees, equitable division and the amount of child support awarded to the wife prior to her obtaining employment. The wife first contends the trial judge erred in requiring her to reside within a 250 mile radius of Spartanburg. The trial judge merely found that this limitation was warranted so that the children would suffer no adverse effect from not being allowed to see their father regularly. In his order on reconsideration, the trial...
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