Thornton v. Thornton, 24698
| Decision Date | 04 December 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 24698,24698 |
| Citation | 328 S.C. 96,492 S.E.2d 86 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | Julianne Blakeley THORNTON, Respondent, v. Kenneth W. THORNTON, Jr., Appellant. . Heard |
H. Asby Fulmer, III, of Lewis, Roger & Lark, P.A., Columbia, for appellant.
James T. McLaren, C. Dixon Lee, III, of McLaren & Lee, Jan L. Warner, Columbia, for respondent.
This is a consolidated case involving three separate appeals of various orders concerning alimony and child support. Appellant Ken Thornton ("Husband") appeals the family court's orders increasing his alimony and child support obligations, ordering him to pay arrearages with interest or transfer real property he owns, and finding him in contempt of court. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and vacate in part. We remand the case for redetermination of attorneys' fees.
This case has a long and tortuous history. Each step of the litigation between the parties has been marked by Husband's attempts to hide his assets, obfuscate issues, deceive the courts of this state and thwart the aims of justice. An abbreviated history of the litigation between the parties is as follows:
Husband and Respondent Julianne Thornton ("Wife") were married in 1968 and remained married for approximately twelve years. At the time of the marriage, Wife was a schoolteacher, and Husband was in law school. During Husband's time in law school, Wife was Husband's primary means of financial support. After Husband completed law school, the couple settled in Georgetown County, where Husband established a successful law practice. During the marriage, the couple purchased a home and numerous rental properties.
Five children were born of the marriage, an older daughter followed by quadruplets ("Children") who were born in 1976. The physical stress of the quadruplet birth exacted a considerable toll on Wife's health. She continues to suffer the effects of giving birth to the quadruplets.
In 1980, Husband left Wife and Children. He admitted engaging in several acts of adultery beginning in 1979. Husband and Wife divorced by decree dated March 17, 1982. The action was brought and heard in Sumter County Family Court in the Third Judicial Circuit following the recusal of all family court judges in the parties' home county of Georgetown in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit. The ground for the divorce was Husband's adultery.
In the final divorce decree, the family court made several findings concerning Husband's income and standard of living. First, it found Husband was "a very successful lawyer with a good practice earning ... up to approximately $106,000 per year reported taxable income from his law practice and outside activities." The order further stated that Husband owned and maintained horses, including a thoroughbred, and owned a fifty percent interest in a corporation that had as its sole asset a motor yacht. It stated Husband "has continued to enjoy an extremely high standard of living, and he enjoys an extremely active social life, at the same time he has protested his inability to pay pendente lite support for Children and [Wife]."
Most significant to the present actions, the divorce decree concluded Husband had failed to report all his income and had attempted to mislead the court regarding the extent of his wealth:
The financial status of the husband is one of considerable wealth although his financial declaration filed with the Court attempted to make the Court believe otherwise. The latest financial declaration showed a negative gross income, a condition which cannot exist. [Husband] attempted to deduct income taxes from his financial declaration without crediting himself with the income which was responsible for the taxation. This cannot be allowed. [Husband's] financial declaration was so beclouded that it was virtually useless in helping the Court determine his monthly income.
(emphasis added). Based on its findings concerning Husband's income and standard of living, the family court ordered Husband to pay Wife $800 per month in alimony and $350 per month per child in child support. The child support requirement extended through the children's "eighteenth (18th) birthday ... unless any child shall continue his or her education in an institution of higher learning." The quadruplets were six at the time of the divorce decree, and the decree noted that Wife was at home raising the children.
Thereafter, throughout the 1980's, the parties continued to litigate issues involving the transfer of property. Husband unsuccessfully attempted to change venue to Georgetown County. In 1987, this court reversed a trial court ruling transferring the case to the Fifteenth Circuit.
Wife was hospitalized in 1990 for chemical dependency. Much stress had filled her life in the years following the divorce. Hurricane Hugo heavily damaged her home in 1989. Her health had deteriorated. Her oldest daughter had been killed in a car accident. One day after Wife entered the hospital, Husband initiated an action in Georgetown County seeking a change of child custody and termination of his child support and alimony obligations. In bringing the action, Husband neither sought nor obtained an order transferring jurisdiction from the family court for the Third Judicial Circuit. Notwithstanding this Court's order conferring jurisdiction to the Sumter Family Court, an ex parte order was issued by the Georgetown Family court in that action on November 7, 1990, granting Husband the relief he sought.
While Wife continued to be hospitalized and unavailable for court proceedings, a series of orders were issued transferring custody to Husband, granting Wife visitation and terminating Husband's alimony and support obligations to Wife. She appeared in these proceedings through her mother as court appointed guardian ad litem. None of these orders were appealed.
After Wife was released from the hospital, she then brought the present action in 1991 in the Third Circuit. She sought an order declaring void for lack of jurisdiction the 1990 transfer of custody to Husband. She also sought custody of Children, arrearages in alimony and child support, increases in the amount of alimony and child support, attorneys' fees, and a finding of contempt for Husband's failure to satisfy his alimony and child support obligations.
A number of orders were issued in this litigation. On July 30, 1991, an order was issued declaring void the order transferring custody to Husband and terminating Husband's alimony and child support obligations. On December 12, 1991, a pendente lite order was issued granting Wife custody of Children, awarding her child support and alimony, and ordering Husband to pay certain medical bills and other expenses associated with Children. 1
On May 28, 1993, the family court found Husband in contempt of court for his failure to pay approximately $21,000 in arrearages for Children's medical care and automobile expenses. Husband had argued that he lacked the means to pay the arrearages because of difficulties with the Internal Revenue Service and the South Carolina Tax Commission. 2 The family court disagreed. It found that notwithstanding Husband's legal difficulties, Husband had ample means to satisfy the arrearages. The court noted that in October 1992, Husband and his current wife had received a $1,000,000 settlement from a lawsuit and that Husband's share totaled $350,000. The court also referred to Husband's "substantial" lifestyle and his ownership of several properties, including his lien free Georgetown office valued at $250,000 and a one-half interest in a Colorado vacation home worth approximately $600,000. The family court relied on these facts to conclude Husband had the ability to pay the arrearages and should, therefore, be held in contempt of court.
Notwithstanding his prior claims that he was "unable" to pay the arrearages, Husband promptly paid the $21,000 as soon as it became clear he would go to jail if he failed to pay.
On April 24, 1994, a final hearing was held to address Wife's request for increases in alimony and child support, to determine Husband's alimony and child support arrearages, and to determine whether Husband should be held in contempt of court for his failure to pay alimony and child support. One of the primary issues litigated by the parties was Husband's ability to pay alimony and child support. Husband admitted he had failed to pay alimony and child support for a period of time, but claimed he had been and was unable to do so because of problems with the IRS and the South Carolina Tax Commission. He claimed that his tax problems had caused his previously thriving law practice to dwindle to practically nothing 3 and that his only source of income was $1500 per month paid to him by his current wife for help with her Amway business. He also admitted having received $350,000 from a lawsuit, but claimed all this money was (more or less) earmarked for the IRS. He further claimed that he had promised the IRS not to sell or otherwise encumber any real property he owned.
Notwithstanding Husband's claims of impoverishment and deprivation, there was ample testimony regarding Husband's lavish lifestyle. Among other things, Husband drove an expensive car, owned a Rolex, and possessed several valuable pieces of property, including the Colorado and Georgetown properties. There was evidence Husband traveled frequently. Wife attempted to establish at the hearing that Husband also had an interest in the Amway business. While the evidence of such an interest was rather limited, it did indicate that Husband contributed "sweat equity" to his current wife's extremely profitable Amway business and that he was capable of making substantial amounts of money in sales. As noted above, Husband received a large settlement in a lawsuit. He managed to pay thousands of dollars to various professionals, including lawyers and accountants,...
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