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Butler v. Butler6/22/1999
This is a divorce case. The trial court awarded custody of the minor children to the wife, divided the marital estate, overruled the wife's motion for sanctions and motion for contempt, and declined to award attorney's fees to either party. The wife now appeals the trial court's division of marital property, the denial of her motions, and failure to award her attorney's fees. We affirm.
Plaintiff/Appellee, Frank Green Butler, Jr. ("Husband"), and Defendant/Appellant, Melody Diane Butler ("Wife"), were married for approximately nine years. Wife was fifteen years old and pregnant at the time of the marriage; Husband was eighteen years old. At trial, Wife was twenty-five years old and Husband was twenty-seven years old. During the parties' marriage, three minor children were born, Frank Butler in 1989, Chasity Butler in 1991, and Tristen Butler in 1997. The children were eight, seven, and one year old respectively at the time of trial.
The parties separated in July, 1997. On August 27, 1997, Husband filed for divorce , citing inappropriate marital conduct or in the alternative irreconcilable differences. Wife filed a counter-complaint for divorce, also citing inappropriate marital conduct or in the alternative irreconcilable differences. Husband works full time for International Paper making $10.89 per hour and on occasion does odd jobs for Chester County Independent. Wife works full time for C&R;Grocery and makes $5.75 per hour. Husband completed tenth grade. Wife began ninth grade but stopped attending school when she became pregnant.
A temporary restraining order was issued on September 19, 1997, which prohibited Husband from harassing Wife, from destroying or disposing of marital or separate property, from altering, canceling or allowing insurance policies to lapse, from removing the minor children from Wife's custody, from interfering in the children's school matters, and from exercising visitation while under the influence of alcoholic beverages. A permanent restraining order was later issued to the same effect. Temporary sole custody of the children was awarded to Wife pending the divorce action, by agreed order of the parties. Husband agreed to pay $565 per month child support during the divorce proceedings.
On December 8, 1997, Wife filed a motion for contempt alleging that Husband disposed of real estate belonging to the parties, caused property to be encumbered, and forged and transferred title to Wife's car in violation of the Temporary Restraining Order. The contempt petition also alleged that Husband paid child support sporadically, creating hardship for Wife and the children. Wife made several attempts to obtain discovery from Husband. On September 19, 1997, Wife served Husband with discovery requests. A motion to compel discovery was filed on December 8, 1997 for failure to respond to the discovery requests. In response, the trial court ordered that the discovery requests be answered by December 24, 1997. A second motion was filed by Wife on February 5, 1998 because of Husband's continued failure to respond to discovery. The trial court then allowed Husband a continuance until February 19, 1998. Wife alleges that Husband's answers to the discovery requests, received in February, 1998, were incomplete and did not contain requested information regarding Husband's financial affairs. Wife sought attorney's fees for the motions.
Husband admitted that he had hit Wife on at least one occasion and that he "took a belt and [ ] whipped her." He had three convictions for driving under the influence. The parties separated several times before their final separation in July, 1997 when Husband kicked Wife out of the marital home. He said that
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