Cameron v. Cameron

259 So. 3d 662
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedNovember 10, 2016
Docket2150546
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 259 So. 3d 662 (Cameron v. Cameron) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cameron v. Cameron, 259 So. 3d 662 (Ala. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

*664Mark Cameron ("the husband") appeals from a judgment of the Lee Circuit Court ("the trial court") divorcing him from Wendy Cameron ("the wife"), dividing the marital assets, and awarding the wife periodic alimony, among other things.

The record indicates the following. The parties married in April 2009 but had lived together since July 2003. The husband testified that, during the time they were living together before the marriage, the parties had not held themselves out as husband and wife. He said that they did not file joint income taxes or have a joint checking account and that the wife did not take his name until after they married. The wife did not dispute the husband's contentions.

Both the husband and the wife have children from previous marriages, all of whom were adults at the time of the divorce trial. The husband was 55 years old at the time of the trial, and the wife was 50 years old. The wife has custody of her son's children pursuant to a safety plan initiated by the Department of Human Resources.

The husband has worked as a truck driver for approximately 30 years. His gross annual income at the time of the trial was approximately $68,000. He testified that he has a 401(k) retirement account that he has paid into for 30 years. At the time of the trial, the account had a value of $292,467.91. The husband testified that he had purchased the house that became the marital residence in late December 1995 or January 1996. According to a list of assets submitted by the husband, the house had a value of approximately $90,000 and a mortgage debt of approximately $52,000. The monthly mortgage payment was $648. The husband also said that he had paid "every one" of the household bills since he moved into the house.

The wife testified that she had contributed $400 each month toward the mortgage payments from July 2003 until 2013, when she was involved in a motor-vehicle accident. She received a settlement of $58,000. After buying furniture for the marital residence, repaying a loan of $5,000 to one of her children, and giving each of her children $1,500, the wife said, she had approximately $23,000 remaining from the settlement. The wife said that she had attempted to give the husband $10,000, but, she said, he had told her he did not want her money. The wife said that she did give him $4,000 out of her settlement proceeds.

The wife worked when the parties first married. However, the husband said, the wife was "let go" from her job in 2010 or 2011 and had not worked since. The wife testified that she lost her job in November 2012. The husband testified that he had "gotten in her face a couple of times and told her to get out and get a job." He said that he worked 60 to 70 hours a week as a truck driver and that he could not "stand to see somebody sitting around." The husband said that the wife claimed she had hurt her back, but he could not say whether the pain was "real or not" because he is not a doctor. He said that her back pain had not affected her ability to enjoy camping and fishing. The wife testified that she is disabled and under the care of a pain-management physician and that she has taken a number of medications for pain she has suffered since the automobile accident.

The husband claimed that the parties had had sexual relations three times in the three years leading up to the trial in December 2015. He said that the last time they had sex was in February or March 2015. He testified that he and the wife *665maintained separate bedrooms but that the wife would "sneak in at night and lay down" with him. He also testified that they no longer had anything in common except fishing. The wife denied that they slept in different bedrooms or that she sneaked into bed with the husband. She said that they continued to sleep in the same bed after the husband filed for the divorce. Furthermore, she testified, they had sexual relations about once a week even after the husband filed the complaint for a divorce. She said that the two had had sex the week before the trial.

The wife discovered that the husband had been "sexting" with another woman.1 The husband claimed that his relationship with the other woman had not involved physical sexual relations and that he had ended that relationship. The wife, however, testified that, on a recent trip, she had discovered that the husband had a second telephone that he used to contact the other woman and that their relationship was ongoing.

The wife did not want to divorce the husband. She testified that, between the time the husband filed the complaint for a divorce and the December 2015 trial, the husband told her that he was going to "call off" the divorce. She said that they had a conversation about not obtaining a divorce as recently as the week before the trial. They had also made plans to attend a birthday party together the weekend after the trial. The husband conceded that the parties went camping, hunting, and fishing together. However, he said, the wife joined him on the trips without being invited, and, he said, he did not want her to come along. The evidence also showed that, in the weeks just before the trial, the husband had told one of the wife's children that he loved another woman and no longer loved the wife. The wife also acknowledged that she had learned months before the trial that the husband did not intend to call off the divorce.

Stephanie Elliott, one of the wife's children, testified that the husband was the only father she knew.2 She testified that, while the trial was underway, she overheard the husband tell the wife "he would like to put [the divorce] off but he wanted to hear what the Judge had to say." Elliott said that, to see the parties together, with the exception of a few arguments, one would never know they were going through a divorce. She said that they talked about the future and purchased items to decorate the house. However, Elliott also said that she had told the wife that the husband was just "leading her on" when he talked about "calling off" the divorce.

Elliott testified that she and the husband had talked the month before the trial and that the husband had told her he was still seeing the other woman. He told Elliott she "should let him go because he was a piece of crap." He also told Elliott that he was sorry but that he was in love with the other woman. Rebecca Savage, the wife's other daughter, corroborated Elliott's testimony. The husband testified that he "lied" to Elliott and Savage "to get them off [his] case" and that he did not love another woman.

The husband testified that, during the marriage, the parties had purchased the vehicle the wife was driving at the time of the trial, an all-terrain vehicle ("ATV"), which the husband said cost $4,000, a fishing boat that had a debt of approximately $32,000, and a camper.

On December 15, 2015, the trial court entered a judgment divorcing the parties on the ground of the irretrievable breakdown *666of the marriage, "largely extending from the Husband's unwillingness to truthfully consider reconciliation, although he has deceived the Wife at times into thinking he would." In the judgment, the trial court explicitly stated that the husband showed "little if any credibility." The trial court wrote:

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Bluebook (online)
259 So. 3d 662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cameron-v-cameron-alacivapp-2016.