Charlottesville Divorce Lawyer Rob Hagy

Father's Failure to Make Full Disclosure of His Earning Capacity Gives Court of Appeals A Reason Not to Find An Abuse of Discretion.

The husband in Assari v. Assari appealed the amount of a reduction in his spousal and child support obligations, contending that the amount of income imputed by the trial court was not supported by the evidence.  The Virginia Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision, ruling that it could not say on appeal that the trial court had abused its discretion given the nature of the evidence presented below.  Not only had the evidence presented been complex (with the husband’s earning capacity reduced partly due to factors beyond his control, and partly due to his own voluntary underemployment). Evidence was also presented that the husband had failed to make a full disclosure as to his earning capacity.

 

Refusal to Register a Michigan Divorce Decree to Secure Custody Proper Where that Decree Had Been Subsequently Modified.

 In Morrison v. Morrison, the Virginia Court of Appeals, in a published opinion, upheld the circuit court’s refusal to register and enforce a 2003 Michigan divorce decree in the Commonwealth giving mother custody of parties’ child.  While disagreeing with the lower court’s reasoning, the Court held that the refusal was proper, given that the 2003 decree had been subsequently modified in 2008. The Court also refused to consider the father’s attempt to invoke the fugitive disentitlement doctrine on appeal, holding the doctrine to be inapplicable to the facts of the case.