The Residence Purchased by the Husband is now Marital Property

Tennessee case summary on property classification and valuation in divorce.

House husband purchased transmuted to marital property. Appeals court affirms property classification.

Robin L. Duffer v. Marc N. Duffer

The husband in this Rutherford County, Tennessee, case had purchased what would become the marital residence about four years before the parties married in 2011. The couple had a child and the wife filed for a divorce in 2018. A hearing was held in the pretrial phase after the mother found nude photos of her child taken by the father on the child’s phone. The case was eventually tried, and the trial judge ruled on the marital residence. The court ruled that the residence, which was originally the husband’s separate estate, had been converted into marital estate. The court valued the property at about $602,000, based on the average of both parties’ testimony. The husband appealed the decision to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. They first looked at the classification of the properties. The husband argued it should have been his separate property. The Court of Appeals affirmed this ruling after reviewing the evidence and the wife’s contributions that were not financial. The husband provided an appraisal of the property when the divorce was finalized. The wife based her testimony on the value and it was unclear when that valuation took place.

Based on this state of the record, the appeals court held that the husband’s appraisal should have controlled, and modified the judgment to reflect that valuation.The appeals court also addressed issues relating to the parenting plan before affirming the lower court’s judgment as modified.