Roof v. Steele

776 S.E.2d 392, 413 S.C. 543, 2015 S.C. App. LEXIS 148
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedJuly 22, 2015
DocketAppellate Case No. 2013-002326; No. 5333
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 776 S.E.2d 392 (Roof v. Steele) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roof v. Steele, 776 S.E.2d 392, 413 S.C. 543, 2015 S.C. App. LEXIS 148 (S.C. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

KONDUROS, J.

Yancey Roof (Wife) appeals the family court’s alimony award, contending it erred in reducing her previously modified award and in requiring her to pay back, via offset of her attorney’s fees award, the overpayment of alimony she received during the pendency of this case on remand. We affirm as modified.

FACTS/PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Wife and Kenneth Steele (Husband) married in 1993. Wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2000, and the parties separated in 2004 resulting in a 2006 divorce. During the marriage, Wife worked as an employee at a frame shop that she and Husband eventually purchased with a partner. [546]*546Husband worked for Blue Cross and Blue Shield and at the time of the divorce, earned approximately $60,000 per year. Wife worked in the frame shop and was earning $16,800 annually. The parties agreed Husband would pay Wife $800 per month in alimony and maintain health insurance on her through his employer at a cost of $87 per month. Wife also received child support for the parties’ two children. After two years, Husband’s employer stopped permitting ex-spouses to be covered on its health insurance plan. Wife petitioned the family court for a modification in her alimony based on the change in circumstances, primarily her lack of insurance coverage, and the expense for getting coverage while suffering from MS. Other changes in circumstances included a decrease in Wife’s earnings, an increase in Husband’s earnings, and the discontinuation of $200 per month in child support based on the children’s majority.

The family court increased Wife’s alimony to $1,547.65. The family court tied the award to the cost of Wife’s insurance coverage. Husband appealed, and this court reversed and remanded, indicating although the change in circumstances warranted an increase in Wife’s alimony, the agreement between the parties did not mandate that alimony be tied directly to the cost of health insurance. See Roof v. Steele, 396 S.C. 373, 389, 720 S.E.2d 910, 919 (2011).

On remand, Wife testified her most recent annual earnings at the frame shop were $12,000 and the partner with whom she operated the frame shop had retired. The frame shop operated approximately thirty-eight hours per week, and Wife stated she had to stay longer sometimes to complete her work. She indicated her health is “OK” and she does not like to think of herself as disabled. However, she also described her current physical and emotional condition as “a wreck” and admitted working is “challenging.” She further testified she suffers from “optic neuritis a lot in [her] eyes, extreme fatigue, and massive headaches.” She provided she had lost a lot of sensation on the right side of her body and indicated it “doesn’t function very well.” This lessening in function affected her ability to do some of the fine manual framing work as quickly. Additionally, her condition made her depressed. She testified she did not believe she could keep a job other than running the frame shop because she needs to be able to [547]*547work at her own pace and thus, she has not sought other employment. Wife stated she has gone to the Social Security website using her smartphone and completed a preliminary screening, which indicated she was not eligible. Wife testified she had not pursued disability or Medicaid further because she believed she should work and was unaware one could earn a certain amount of income and still qualify for benefits.

With regard to her insurance, Wife maintained her coverage through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) after Husband’s employee insurance coverage ended, and she was able to obtain a private policy in the amount of $1,247.65 per month. Husband paid this premium pursuant to court directive. The cost of the policy increased by approximately $200 per month thereafter, and Wife dropped the insurance because she could not pay the premium. However, Wife still accepted the alimony payments from Husband and used them to pay other bills.

Wife indicated she was not living at the same standard as during the marriage when she took vacations with the family, spent time on the lake, purchased new clothing, and had health insurance. Additionally, Wife testified she had listed $3,600 as the annual alimony she received on two prior tax returns but acknowledged the money for her insurance premium should have been considered alimony as well. She further indicated those returns were prepared by her brother-in-law and Husband deducted the full amount paid on his tax returns.

Husband testified he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and had a heart attack requiring a stint in 2007. He is a network administrator with Blue Cross and Blue Shield and testified his earnings had increased from $5,000 per month during the marriage to approximately $6,755 per month plus an annual $7,600 incentive bonus. Husband also testified he had inherited approximately $300,000 to $350,000 since the divorce and had purchased some personal items, including a boat and a motorcycle, and had taken a few cruises and a trip to Mexico. He indicated he invested the remainder and purchased four rental properties that had yet to earn a profit. Additionally, he stated he pays for one child’s college expenses and has paid the majority of the children’s healthcare expenses.

[548]*548Doris Ann Hozey, a self-employed insurance agent, testified the current cost to insure Wife would be $1,612.27 monthly. However, she anticipated once the Affordable Health Insurance Act enrollment began, Wife could be covered for approximately $640 to $720 per month.

The family court determined “[e]ven though her expenditures exceed her income, [Wife] has done nothing to improve her financial circumstances. Although she earns much less than minimum wage, she was [sic] not considered closing her business and/or seeking other employment.” With regard to not maintaining her health insurance most recently, the court stated “[i]t appears that [Wife] is complacent in her predicament, and instead of taking responsibility to improve her own income to at least cover necessities, so that she could use the alimony to cover insurance, she has sought increased alimony from [Husband].” “[Wife] did nothing to mitigate her future healthcare costs. She did not explore other employment, employment that would increase her earnings and/or provide health care coverage. She did not seek to improve her education; she did not apply for Medicaid or Social Security Disability.”

Ultimately, the family court found “[Wife]’s disability does not affect her ability to work; she is capable of working full-time,” and “capable of earning at least minimum wage.” The family court therefore imputed a gross annual income to Wife of $15,072.00. The family court modified Husband’s alimony payment to $796.51 per month and required Wife to repay the overpayment of alimony, $15,022.80, received since the date of remand.

With regard to attorney’s fees, the family court found Wife had been successful in increasing her alimony payment overall from $300 per month and Husband was better able to pay attorney’s fees although “[h]ad [Wife] put forth as much effort to improve her financial situation and become self-sufficient as she did to increase her alimony payment, she may not have had as much debt as she does today, as she would not owe as much in attorney’s fees.” Nevertheless, the family court awarded Wife $25,000 of her $29,753.31 attorney’s fees.

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Related

Steele v. Steele
Court of Appeals of South Carolina, 2016

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Bluebook (online)
776 S.E.2d 392, 413 S.C. 543, 2015 S.C. App. LEXIS 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roof-v-steele-scctapp-2015.