Bannor v. Bannor

• Decision Date: 25 April 2023
• Docket Number: E2022-00507-COA-R3-CV
• Parties: DORA BANNOR v. PHILIP BANNOR
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

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DORA BANNOR
v.
PHILIP BANNOR

No. E2022-00507-COA-R3-CV

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Knoxville

April 25, 2023

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Hamilton County No. 17D2061Ward Jeffrey Hollingsworth, Judge

This appeal arises from a divorce case. The wife filed a complaint for divorce alleging irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct. The trial court granted a divorce to the wife on the ground of inappropriate marital conduct, divided the marital estate, awarded alimony, and entered a judgment for unpaid child support. The husband appeals. We affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed in Part, Vacated in Part, and Remanded

Robert N. Meeks, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellant, Philip Bannor.

Dora Bannor, Knoxville, Tennessee, pro se appellee.

CARMA DENNIS MCGEE, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JOHN W. MCCLARTY and W. NEAL MCBRAYER, JJ., joined.

OPINION

CARMA DENNIS MCGEE, JUDGE

I. FACTS &PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In June 1998, Philip Bannor ("Husband") and Dora Bannor ("Wife") were married in Ghana.^[1] The parties had three children, two of whom had reached the age of majority at the time the complaint for divorce was filed in this case. The remaining minor child

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reached the age of majority during the pendency of this case. Husband was a medical doctor who had run his own medical clinic in Tennessee since 2005. Wife had a high school education but did not have a college degree; however, she had worked at several different places during the parties' marriage. The parties both agreed that their marriage began to break down because of intimacy issues. They eventually separated in September 2017. Since the parties' separation, Husband had resided in Ghana for the majority of the time.

In September 2017, Wife filed a complaint for divorce against Husband alleging irreconcilable differences, or, in the alternative, inappropriate marital conduct.^[2] Husband filed an answer, in which he admitted the parties had irreconcilable differences but denied he was guilty of inappropriate marital conduct. Wife then filed motions for interim attorney's fees, an emergency injunction and order, child support, and alimony. She stated that Husband had left the United States and traveled to Ghana. She alleged that he had threatened to close his medical clinic in Tennessee and to never return to the United States and that he was transferring funds and trying to hide or dissipate marital assets. In January 2018, the trial court entered an order addressing Wife's motions. The court noted that Husband was out of the country at the time of the hearing and prohibited Husband from traveling to Ghana until further order of the court. The court also prohibited Husband from transferring money or assets unless such transfer was directly related to paying current living expenses and from making cash withdrawals other than what was directly related to paying current living expenses. Additionally, the court ordered Husband to pay the following: $1,000 to Wife's attorney for interim attorney's fees; $1,343 per month to Wife for child support; $1,000 per month to Wife for alimony; and the mortgages and/or indebtedness related to the marital residence.

Husband subsequently filed a motion to lift the travel restrictions imposed on him by the court. He explained that he had additional employment in Ghana which enabled him to pay his obligations, such as the child support, the alimony, and the mortgage on the marital residence. As a result, the court entered an order in March 2018 modifying its previous order to lift the travel restrictions to Ghana imposed on Husband. The court found that said travel was necessary for Husband to maintain both his medical clinic in Tennessee and his employment in Ghana, noting that Husband made an additional income of $2,222 per month in Ghana. In doing so, however, the court also modified Husband's child support obligation to reflect his additional income from his employment in Ghana. In the meantime, Wife filed a second motion for interim attorney's fees and a motion to allocate payment of marital debt, which were granted by the court. The court ordered Husband to

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continue to pay Wife's attorney $250 every other week as alimony in solido, to procure health insurance for Wife and their minor child, and to pay to get Wife's life insurance policy reinstated. Additionally, the court ordered Husband to keep payment current and timely on all marital debts.

In October 2018, Husband filed a motion to sell the marital residence in Tennessee and one of the parties' residences in Ghana. Wife then filed another motion for interim attorney's fees. She alleged that Husband had attempted to conceal assets in Ghana and had made himself intentionally underemployed in order to avoid paying expenses associated with the divorce action. She also filed a motion for civil contempt stating that Husband had refused to pay the mortgage on the marital residence and that she had received notification that the marital residence would be going into foreclosure. She alleged again that Husband continued to be underemployed and sought to rely on his underemployment as justification for making her homeless.

Thereafter, Wife filed a motion in January 2019 to reduce Husband's arrears from alimony, child support, attorney's fees, and the mortgage payments to a judgment. She stated that Husband had not paid the mortgage and that it was now eight months in arrears. She explained that the marital residence was previously put into foreclosure but Husband submitted an application to the bank to reinstate the loan and forestall the sale. However, Husband had not made a payment on the reinstated loan. As such, she said that the marital residence would be foreclosed on if it was not sold soon. Based upon an agreement between the parties, the trial court ultimately entered an order for the parties to sell the marital residence. The court ordered that any funds realized from the sale of marital residence would be deposited into the trust account of counsel for Wife.

In May 2019, Wife filed a petition for contempt and injunctive relief alleging, among other things, that Husband had withdrawn at least $360,202.18 in cash since the complaint for divorce was filed. She asserted eight counts of willful contempt against Husband.^[3] She also filed a motion to increase alimony due to Husband's failure to pay the mortgage on the marital residence, which required her to rent another home and increased her monthly expenses. Husband filed motions to modify child support and alimony, explaining that his income had become significantly lower since the court ordered him to pay support. Wife then filed a motion for contempt and for sanctions for Husband's failure to pay support and to pay tutor fees for the parties' minor child. In November 2019, the trial court entered an order denying Husband's motions to modify child support and

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alimony. However, the court granted Wife's motion for contempt and sanctions. The court also found Husband to be in willful contempt and ordered him to pay Wife's attorney's fees related to the motion.^[4] Additionally, the court prohibited Husband from withdrawing further monies from certain bank accounts, from transferring further funds or properties from the United States, and from being paid by his medical clinic in Tennessee. Any alimony or child support payments owed by Husband were to be paid directly to Wife by the medical clinic beginning in November 2019. Afterward, Wife filed another motion for criminal/civil contempt. She asserted, among other things, that Husband willfully failed and refused to pay the mortgage related to the marital residence. As a result, she said that the marital residence went into foreclosure and that she and the minor child were forced to find other housing.

The trial in this case was originally set for April 2020. However, the first day of trial did not occur until in December 2020 and was then continued pursuant to an agreed order entered by the court. Afterward, the former counsel for Husband filed a motion to withdraw, which the trial court granted. As a consequence, the second and third days of trial did not occur until July 2021. The final day of trial occurred in October 2021. Therefore, the timeline of the four-day trial in this case was somewhat unusual in that it occurred over the course of a ten-month period, and there were certain things the parties testified to on the first day of trial that had changed at the time of the final day of trial.

In January 2022, the trial court entered a memorandum order and final decree of divorce. The court began by noting that it had found Husband had no credibility in its previous orders and that its finding had not changed. The court granted the divorce in favor of Wife based on Husband's inappropriate marital conduct, which included Husband abandoning her and their children when he moved to Ghana. The court described Husband's actions as "absconding with a major portion of the parties' marital assets" and likened his actions to "theft." The court addressed the issue of whether Husband still owed any unpaid child support and found that Husband had failed to pay the two months of unpaid child support from September and October 2019. Therefore, the court entered a judgment against Husband for unpaid child support and the attorney's fees related to the contempt proceeding.

The trial court then divided the marital property and allocated the marital debt. The court first addressed the property located on Shallowford Road in Chattanooga. Husband had owned the Shallowford Road property, which was the previous location of his medical clinic. The medical clinic was relocated from this property at some point after falling behind...