Domestic Relations: Maintenance-Equalization Payment-Attorney’s Fees

Staff Report//July 9, 2019

Where a husband involved in a dissolution challenged an award of $800 in monthly maintenance, the trial court did not err in calculating the wife’s income or in considering her post-dissolution increase in expenses, and the court also did not err in failing to include written findings regarding the statutory factors because the husband did not request such findings, and the judgment is affirmed because an equalization payment was not an abuse of discretion, and the court’s order for the husband to pay $3,000 for the wife’s attorney’s fees was supported by evidence that the husband was financially able to pay and based on his conduct in limiting her access to marital assets and her financial destitution.

Judgment is affirmed.

Dickerson v. Dickerson (MLW No. 73463/Case No. ED106855 – 19 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Quigless, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Cape Girardeau County, Lewis, J. (Alexa C. Hart-Lorenz for appellant) (Shanna K. Surratt for respondent).