Hogan v. Hogan

199 So. 3d 50, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 285, 2015 WL 7889623
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 4, 2015
Docket2140556
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 199 So. 3d 50 (Hogan v. Hogan) 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
Hogan v. Hogan, 199 So. 3d 50, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 285, 2015 WL 7889623 (Ala. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

Randall Hogan (“the husband”) appeals from a judgment of the Cullman Circuit Court (“the trial court”) divorcing him from Darlene Marie Hogan (“the wife”). On appeal, the husband challenges, among other things, certain provisions of the judgment that he claims are contrary to a prenuptial agreement (“the agreement”) the parties had entered on April 2, 2008.1

“ ‘Although the ore tenus presumption applies to the trial court’s findings of fact, no such presumption adheres to the trial court’s application of the law to those facts. Ex parte Agee, 669 So.2d 102, 104 (Ala.1995). The [parties’] arguments are based upon the interpretation of certain provisions and terms in the parties’ antenuptial agreement; such interpretations, like the interpretation of unambiguous contracts, are questions of law. See Agee, 669 So.2d at 105; Stacey v. Saunders, 437 So.2d 1230, 1233 (Ala.1983).’
“Laney v, Laney, 833 So.2d 644, 646 (Ala.Civ.App.2002).”

Yarbrough v. Yarbrough, 144 So.3d 386, 391 (Ala.Civ.App.2014).

In the judgment, the trial court made specific findings of fact, including the finding that the parties had entered into the agreement. The trial court included certain terms of the agreement in its findings, including the provision that the parties “waive[d], release[d], and relinquish[ed] any and all claims and rights of every kind, nature or description, whether legal or equitable, which they may have against the other’s separately owned property, as such property shall exist at the time of such dissolution [of the marriage], including” among other things, claims for “attorney’s fees, court costs, and other fees or expenses incurred as a result of the divorce or dissolution.” After making that explicit finding, however, without explanation, the trial court awarded the wife an attorney fee of $3,500.

The husband contends that the trial court’s award of a $3,500 attorney fee to the wife violates the agreement. In the context of construing a prenuptial agreement, this court has held that ‘““[a]n agreement that by its terms is plain and free from ambiguity must be enforced as written.” ’ ” Yarbrough, 144 So.3d at 391 (quoting Hood v. Hood, 72 So.3d 666, 677 (Ala.Civ.App.2011), quoting in turn R.G. v. G.G., 771 So.2d 490, 494 (Ala.Civ.App.2000), citing in turn Jones v. Jones, 722 So.2d 768 (Ala.Civ.App.1998)(emphasis added)). There is no contention that the provision at issue is ambiguous. In Ex parte Walters, 580 So.2d 1352, 1355 (Ala.1991), our supreme court held that when “a provision of a valid ante-nuptial agreement specifically states that attorney fees will be waived in the. event of a divorce, a trial court cannot award attorney fees unless it would be inequitable and unjust to enforce that provision.”

The four pages of factual findings the trial court set out in its judgment provide no basis for a conclusion that it [53]*53would be inequitable and unjust to enforce the -provision of the agreement in which each party relinquished any right he or she might have had to an attorney fee. In her brief on appeal, the wife argues that, in this ease, it would be inequitable to enforce the provision because, she says, the husband engaged in conduct that prolonged the litigation. The wife asserts that the husband “purposefully continue[d] the case by firing his attorneys” and by failing to comply with her discovery requests. The trial court, however, made no such finding.

Moreover, we note that the wife’s argument on appeal was never made to the trial court. In his special writing, Judge Moore states that this court must assume that the trial court impliedly made findings of fact necessary to sustain its award of an attorney fee; however, no evidence was taken on the issue of whether enforcement of the provision at issue would be inequitable and unjust, and no argument was made to the trial court as to that issue. Thus, it defies logic for the court to assume that the trial court impliedly made those findings of fact necessary to sustain its judgment when the trial court had no evidence as to this issue before it.

Furthermore, out of an abundance of caution, we note that the record indicates that the husband did, as the wife states, terminate the services of four attorneys between the filing of the complaint in December 2012 and the February 10, 2015, trial. However, the record also indicates that the first circuit judge assigned to hear the case had a business relationship with the wife’s attorney, which was expected to end soon. The case was temporarily reassigned to another judge, but then was returned to the original judge. However, the original judge learned that she had a relative who had prepared the agreement in this case; therefore, she recused herself, and the case was again reassigned. The. presiding circuit judge also recused himself from the case for a reason that is not clear from the record. Because both of the circuit judges eligible to hear the case had recused themselves, on June 9, 2014, the presiding circuit judge appointed a district-court judge to serve as ex officio circuit judge to hear this case. Because of the number of times this matter was reassigned, there were delays in the trial court’s consideration of some motions, including those filed by the wife. There is no evidence; to support a finding, to the extent such a finding can be implied in the judgment, that the number of delays in the litigation of this matter were caused primarily by the husband’s conduct. Pursuant to Yarbrough, the trial court was bound to enforce the agreement as it was written, just as it would be bound to enforce any other contract. After finding that the parties had entered into the agreement, the trial court made no findings of fact that the agreement, or any part of the agreement, was invalid or unenforceable. Accordingly, the trial court was bound to enforce the terms of the agreement as written, and the trial court’s award of an attorney fee to the wife must be reversed.

The husband also contends that the trial court improperly ordered him to “reimburse” the wife for the entire amount of the health-insurance premiums she paid— which provided insurance coverage to both the husband and the wife — during the pen-dency of the divorce action. The husband claims that he should not be required to repay those premiums, in their entirety because, he says, the repayment constitutes a form of spousal support in the nature of periodic alimony, which the parties specifically waived in the agreement. As the trial court pointed out in its judgment, whether the wife was to be reim[54]*54bursed for the health-insurance premiums she paid on behalf of the husband was an issue expressly before the court.

The husband’s argument is based upon the interpretation of certain provisions and terms in the agreement; such interpretations, like the interpretation of unambiguous contracts, are questions of law. Laney v. Laney, 833 So.2d 644, 646 (Ala.Civ.App.2002) (citing Ex parte Agee, 669 So.2d 102, 105 (Ala.1995), and Stacey v. Saunders, 437 So.2d 1230, 1233 (Ala.1983)). See also Peace v. Peace, 137 So.3d 905, 909 (Ala.Civ.App.2012) (holding that the issue of whether the obligation to provide a former spouse with health-insurance coverage con-stitutés spousal support in the nature of periodic alimony is a question of law).

In Peace, this court held that an

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Bluebook (online)
199 So. 3d 50, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 285, 2015 WL 7889623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hogan-v-hogan-alacivapp-2015.