MICHAEL GRANDE v. KIMBERLY GRANDE - Articles

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MICHAEL GRANDE v. KIMBERLY GRANDE

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Aug 18, 2023

Court: TN Court of Appeals

Attorneys 1: Allison Easterday Alexander and Haleigh E. Chastain, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Dr. Kimberly Grande.

Attorneys 2: Sarah Y. Sheppeard and Ariane S. Hookman, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Michael Grande.

Judge(s): SWINEY

This appeal concerns divorce-related issues. In October 2019, Michael Grande (“Husband”) filed for divorce against Dr. Kimberly Grande (“Wife”) in the Circuit Court for Knox County (“the Trial Court”). In March 2021, the Trial Court entered its Final Judgment for Divorce, which incorporated the parties’ Marital Dissolution Agreement (“the MDA”). In September 2021, Husband filed a petition for civil contempt against Wife. In its June 2022 final order, the Trial Court found among other things that Wife was in civil contempt of court. Wife appeals. Husband raises his own issues as well. We find, inter alia, that Wife is not in civil contempt for pre-MDA conduct when the MDA purported to resolve the very issues subject to the contempt petition and Husband has not asserted a claim of fraud. We reverse the Trial Court’s findings of civil contempt against Wife, as well as the judgments against Wife in the amounts of $27,000 and $11,171.80, respectively. We also reverse the Trial Court’s award of attorney’s fees to Husband, and decline to award either party attorney’s fees and expenses incurred on appeal. Otherwise, we affirm the judgment of the Trial Court. We thus affirm, in part, and reverse, in part.

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