The high-earning doctor in McKee v. McKee, 22 VLW 1061 (unpublished, 1/29/08), then had the nerve to argue that the wife’s other claimed expenses were way too high. He was challenging particularly a $627 car payment, $750 for savings, repairs that were supposed to be taken care of by the refinancing, $950 groceries with $300 meals out, $345 gasoline, $186 cable and $60 for financial advice. The court majority said that wife has the burden of supporting the figures she claims and she presented insufficient evidence to support any of these expenses, so it was error to grant alimony based on them.
(She had testified that she did not have a car payment, but a new car would be nice and necessary in the future to achieve the standard to which she had grown accustomed, but no evidence was presented to justify the amount claimed). Nor did she do anything to support $750 monthly to savings as the appropriate amount. As for home repair and maintenance expenses, she should have provided bills, receipts, or estimates. The wife apparently should not have said in her testimony about the groceries and the meals out, “That sounds outrageous, doesn’t it?” because the Court of Appeals takes that into account. As for each of these expenses, the Court doesn’t say they’re unreasonable, but simply says wife presented no paper to support them. Against this background, husband’s argument that the $14,000 per month alimony award, with $1,680 child support monthly, and private school tuition, left him with hardly any of his $20,000 per month gross income to support himself sounds persuasive. But the trial court bought the wife’s argument that the tax savings from paying alimony completely changed all that, and the Court of Appeals agrees. It can’t ignore these tax consequences, as his income and expense sheet showed gross pay of almost $30,000 per month, reduced by federal and state taxes (and life insurance and disability insurance) to $20,000. The majority opinion recites a neat calculation showing that husband absolutely makes out like a bandit and comes out with more income than he had before, (but when you add it up yourself it looks like he now comes about $1,000 short of breaking even.) But whatever, the majority points out that we must not forget the husband just bought a $1,000,000 home.