Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Nebraska Court of Appeals in memorandum decision affirms alimony order for $2300 monthly for 20 months when Gage County District Court considered husband's personal draws from his business as income. The husband regularly drew $40 to $50K per year from his incorporated pallet business and counted the draws as a corporate loan that he would repay with bonus salary. The divorce court considered the draws as income when considering its $2300 monthly alimony award to the wife. Even if the court did not factor in these draws when calculating child support the Court of Appeals affirms the alimony award and this reasoning. the “loans” is how the couple handled their money during the marriage, and thus, it would be incongruous for the courts to ignore this additional stream of money which has provided for the parties’ lifestyle and expenses. Steve’s argument appears to be that because the “borrowing and bonus” methodology was not considered for child support purposes it cannot be considered for alimony purposes. No authority is cited for this notion, and while Lisa might have made the opposite argument on appeal for increased child support, she did not. This is not to suggest that such an argument would have been successful, but only that Steve’s argument in this regard ignores the aspects of the court’s treatment of the “borrowing and bonus evidence” that are favorable to him. Accordingly, after consideration of the entire record, we are unable to say that the trial court’s award of alimony is untenable and an abuse of discretion.

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