Wiggins v. Wiggins
| Decision Date | 05 November 1986 |
| Citation | 498 So.2d 853 |
| Parties | Cary WIGGINS v. Ophelia WIGGINS. Civ. 5338. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Civil Appeals |
Joel S. Rogers III, Clanton, for appellant.
Eason Mitchell of Mitchell, Green, Pino & Medaris, Alabaster, for appellee.
This is a divorce case. The issue as raised by the husband's appeal is whether the trial court abused its discretion in dividing the property of the parties.
The trial court awarded to the husband certain bank accounts, notes, and debts which had an aggregate value of about $51,000. In addition, the husband has reasonable expectations of vested retirement income which shall amount to approximately $570 per month after he works for five more years.
The wife received accounts totaling $5,000, a commercial sewing business worth about $8,000 which is located in the basement of their home, and the jointly-owned home of the parties with the wife being required to assume and pay the mortgage against it.
They purchased the home seven years ago for $60,000, and they are joint tenants with right of survivorship. They paid $30,000 in cash towards the purchase price and financed the remaining $30,000. The $30,000 down payment was accumulated from three sources: $15,000 from their equity in their previous home, $10,000 from their profit from an investment made on their behalf by the wife, and $5,000 from their joint savings, which came from the incomes of both parties. They have made $16,000 in improvements to the property. The home has an appraised value of $74,000 according to the wife, who does some professional real estate appraisals. The husband's estimate as to its worth was $90,000.
The parties married in 1973 and had no children by this marriage. The husband is forty-five years of age and the wife is two years younger. He is an electrician and has worked in Alaska for several years. His annual average income over the past three years was $58,000. The wife had worked previously as a real estate salesperson but now devotes almost full time to her commercial sewing business which has not been established long enough to be presently profitable.
Since the trial was conducted before the circuit court, its judgment is presumed to be factually correct and will not be set aside on appeal unless it was so unsupported by the evidence as to be palpably wrong. While a division of property through a divorce judgment does not have to be equal, it must be equitable. In a divorce case the...
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Ex parte Killough
...and the trial court's ruling on those matters will not be reversed except for palpable abuse of that discretion. Wiggins v. Wiggins, 498 So.2d 853 (Ala.Civ.App.1986). A trial court's judgment is presumed to be correct if it is supported by the evidence. Nowell v. Nowell, 474 So.2d 1128 (Ala......
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Butts v. Butts
...Waid v. Waid, 540 So.2d 764 (Ala.Civ.App.1989); Montgomery v. Montgomery, 519 So.2d 525 (Ala.Civ.App.1987); Wiggins v. Wiggins, 498 So.2d 853 (Ala.Civ.App.1986); Brannon v. Brannon, 477 So.2d 445 (Ala.Civ.App.1985); Ross v. Ross, 447 So.2d 812 (Ala.Civ.App.1984). It is also well-established......
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Corl v. Corl
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...discretion of the trial court, and its judgment will not be reversed absent a showing that it abused its discretion. Wiggins v. Wiggins, 498 So.2d 853 (Ala.Civ.App.1986). The record shows that the husband's pension plan and retirement benefits were discussed several times during the trial. ......