Michael Anthony Milliner v. Mary Allison Milliner

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJuly 10, 2024
Docket2023 CA 000279
StatusUnknown

This text of Michael Anthony Milliner v. Mary Allison Milliner (Michael Anthony Milliner v. Mary Allison Milliner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michael Anthony Milliner v. Mary Allison Milliner, (Ky. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

RENDERED: JULY 12, 2024; 10:00 A.M. NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals NO. 2023-CA-0279-MR AND NO. 2023-CA-0282-MR

MICHAEL ANTHONY MILLINER APPELLANT/CROSS-APPELLEE

APPEAL AND CROSS-APPEAL FROM v. BULLITT CIRCUIT COURT HONORABLE MONICA K. MEREDITH, JUDGE ACTION NO. 20-CI-00449

MARY ALLISON MILLINER APPELLEE/CROSS-APPELLANT

OPINION AND ORDER REVERSING AND REMANDING ON DIRECT APPEAL AND AFFIRMING ON CROSS-APPEAL

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: COMBS, LAMBERT, AND MCNEILL, JUDGES.

LAMBERT, JUDGE: Michael Anthony Milliner (Michael) has appealed from the

orders of the Bullitt Family Court awarding his interest in the marital residence to

his former wife, Mary Allison Milliner (Allison). Allison has filed a protective

cross-appeal seeking a retrial of her maintenance claim in the event Michael is successful on his appeal. We reverse on Michael’s direct appeal and affirm on

Allison’s cross-appeal.

Michael and Allison were married on March 10, 2007, in Bullitt

County, Kentucky. One child, a daughter, was born of the marriage in 2008. The

couple separated in February 2019, and Michael filed a petition to dissolve the

marriage in June 2020. At that time, Michael was 43 years old and worked as a

maintenance technician for UPS. Allison was 49 years old and worked part-time

as a dental hygienist. In addition to dissolving the marriage, Michael sought joint

custody of the child, an assigned parenting schedule, restoration of non-marital

property, an equitable division of marital property, and a just assignment of marital

debts. In her answer, Allison sought joint custody of the child with limited

visitation for Michael, child support, and an award of maintenance.

Michael filed a preliminary verified disclosure statement indicating

that he had a gross monthly income from UPS of $5,926.00. He indicated that the

marital residence on Dublin Circle in Louisville (Bullitt County) had a fair market

value of $208,090.00 as of June 15, 2020, and that there was no mortgage on the

property. A general warranty deed attached to the disclosure indicated that he,

Allison, and Allison’s father, Ron Leslie, had purchased the property in 2013 for

$172,000.00. He also claimed two other properties as non-marital as they were

gifted to him. In her preliminary verified disclosure statement, Allison stated that

-2- she earned a gross monthly income of $948.89 through her employment with Dr.

Gregory Cecil. She also included a monthly expenses worksheet calculating her

total monthly expenses to be $5,192.14, which included a $600.00 mortgage

payment to Mr. Leslie.

After holding a hearing in September 2020, the court entered a

pendente lite order that the parties were to share joint custody of the child and to

have equally shared parenting time. The court also appointed a guardian ad litem

(GAL) to represent the child’s interests. The parties continued to litigate custody

issues, but as these issues are not relevant to these appeals, we shall not address

them unless necessary for clarity.

In October of that year, Allison moved the court for an award of

temporary maintenance and child support. Through her employment as a dental

hygienist, she earned a gross income of $2,288.00 per month.1 Her annual gross

income in 2019 was $27,456.00, while Michael’s was $79,968.00. She stated that

after Michael left the marital residence, he stopped assisting in paying the monthly

bills, and that it was not possible for her to do so and pay for the child’s needs

(including braces) on her salary. Allison included an affidavit to support the

motion. She filed an amended expenses worksheet calculating her monthly

1 This amount is greater than the amount Allison listed in her preliminary financial disclosure statement.

-3- expenses to be $3,442.76, which again included a $600.00 mortgage payment to

Mr. Leslie.

The family court held a hearing on March 23, 2021, where it heard

testimony regarding child support and temporary maintenance. Allison testified

that she had worked as a dental hygienist for Dr. Cecil for 16 or 17 years. She

worked three days per week for 18 to 22 hours, depending on the patient load, and

she earned $29.50 per hour. In 2019, she earned gross wages of $27,462.00.

Michael stopped providing help with the bills, except the cell phone bill, in July

2020, when he froze the joint accounts. Her monthly bills totaled around

$3,400.00. The $600.00 mortgage she listed on the disclosure was a payment to

her father, Mr. Leslie, for the marital residence (she had not been paying this

during the litigation). Mr. Leslie had paid for the marital residence, and she and

Michael were supposed to pay him back. Allison stated that she needed help to

pay her bills (both household and for the child). Mr. Leslie had been helping her,

and she had been using credit cards. Her daughter’s extra-curricular activities, as

well as her own work on the PTA board, prevented Allison from working in

another place. In addition, Allison testified that when they got married and had a

child, she and Michael had agreed that she would only work three days per week

so that she could take care of and transport the child.

-4- At the conclusion of the testimony, Allison requested temporary

maintenance and child support. Michael objected to her motion for temporary

maintenance, noting that “things change” once a couple separates and that she no

longer needed to work on a part-time basis. He did not dispute that he owed her

child support. He requested that the court impute her income at 40 hours per week

or at a minimum impute additional income to her at minimum wage for 20 hours.

The family court took the motions under submission and scheduled a trial date for

May of that year.

In an order entered March 25, 2021, the court ordered Michael to pay

Allison $562.31 per month in child support beginning April 5 of that year. It

ordered Michael to pay the $2,811.55 arrearage that had accumulated since

October 2021 via a lump sum payment. The court provided its reasoning as

follows:

So that the parties may understand the Court’s perception going forward to a final resolution of this action, the Court notes that it is persuaded that [Allison] chooses to be underemployed and in its calculation imputes to her wages in the amount of $4,524.00 per month calculated by taking her hourly rate of $29.00 and multiplying by thirty-six (36) hours which is the federal minimum for full-time employment.

The court attached a worksheet setting forth its calculations. The parties were to

split all uninsured health expenses for the child based upon their respective

-5- percentages of adjusted parental gross income (56.7% for Michael and 43.3% for

Allison).

The court went on to deny Allison’s motion for temporary

maintenance, concluding that she had failed to meet the burden set forth in

Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) 403.200 to provide “sufficient reliable

information” to support the motion. The court noted:

The Verified Financial Disclosure filed by [Allison] is inconsistent with the testimony offered at the hearing of the motion, the motion itself fails to comply with the applicable Family Court Rules of Practice and Procedure, statements of Counsel in Motions are argument not evidence.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Young v. Young
314 S.W.3d 306 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2010)
Atwood v. Atwood
643 S.W.2d 263 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1982)
Moore v. Asente
110 S.W.3d 336 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2003)
Browning v. Browning
551 S.W.2d 823 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1977)
Shafizadeh v. Shafizadeh
444 S.W.3d 437 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2012)
Deleo v. Deleo
533 S.W.3d 211 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2017)
Cobane v. Cobane
544 S.W.3d 672 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Michael Anthony Milliner v. Mary Allison Milliner, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michael-anthony-milliner-v-mary-allison-milliner-kyctapp-2024.