In Re Earnest B.R.

2013 WL 6504359 (N.D. Fl.)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D filed a voluntary Chapter 13 petition on December 29, 2011. Dodson (P) filed a Complaint seeking a determination that D’s obligations to pay (1) $30,730.57 to reimburse her for half of the mortgage payments that she paid during their separation, and (2) half of the monthly mortgage payments on the home beginning on June 1, 2010 (the first payment due after the dissolution) and continuing until the home is sold, are non-dischargeable in this Chapter 13 as being in the nature of alimony, maintenance, or support. D claims that the sums are dischargeable because they do not constitute a domestic support obligation. P and D were married and had two children. D left the marital home and moved into an apartment with his girlfriend and her child. P worked two jobs at times and paid all expenses related to the home and the children‘s daycare with no contribution from D. D filed the dissolution of marriage action on March 10, 2009, a little over two years after the parties separated. The marital home had negative equity. In between D moving out and the final dissolution hearing, P had paid a total of $61,461.14 toward the mortgage to prevent foreclosure of the home while she and the children lived there. After the couple divorced, P stayed in the home as D successfully blocked P from moving with the children to Mississippi with her then-fiancé. The State Court ordered D to reimburse P half of the amount she had paid on the mortgage, awarded continued, exclusive possession of the home to P, and ordered each party to pay half of the mortgage payments from the dissolution until the home was sold. The court stated it was equitable for P to be reimbursed.