Divorce Property Division in Nigeria Must Account for Property
Tennessee case summary on property division and alimony in divorce.
Property division and alimony need to include parties’ property in Nigeria.
Augustina C. Durunna v. Nelson I. Durunna
The husband and wife in this Davidson County, Tennessee, case were originally from Nigeria, but married in Arkansas in 1998. They had children starting in 1999. For example, he worked for Hertz Rental for a time, and operated an office cleaning business.
During the marriage, they family moved to Tennessee, where the wife filed for divorce in 2019. The trial court issued its final order, dividing property and awarding alimony to the husband of $815 per monthly. The wife appealed the decision to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The court found that the divorce award was valid and then moved on to the valuation of marital residence. The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s valuation. However, the wife pointed out that the trial court did not account for all the parties’ assets. In particular, the wife alleged that the parties owned multiple properties in Nigeria, and that these properties were never addressed.
The appeals court cited an earlier case in which there was marital property located in the Gaza Strip. That case, in turn, relied upon a 1926 case which held that,
even though a court did not have jurisdiction over a property in another jurisdiction, it could, nonetheless, enter an order requiring one party to transfer it
.The trial court had refused to rule because the evidence was so lacking that it was unable to make a finding of ownership by either party. The appeals court referred to a property that was claimed by the wife to be hers, and which the husband admitted to. There was also evidence that this Nigerian property had been purchased with marital assets. There was also evidence that this Nigerian property had been purchased with marital assets.For this reason, the Court of Appeals remanded the case for the lower court to take this property into consideration.
Because of this change in the property distribution, the appeals court also ordered the lower court to reconsider the alimony award.
It did deny the wife’s request for attorney’s fees on appeal.
No. M2022-00415-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. Legal citations omitted. Legal citations have been omitted.To find out more, visit Property Division in Tennessee divorce and watch our video Is Tennessee 50-50 divorce state?
