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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE
Assigned on Briefs February 21, 2006 VICKI LYNN FOX v. TERRY WAYNE FOX
Appeal from the Chancery Court for Putnam County No. 02-268 Vernon Neal, Chancellor

No. M2004-02616-COA-R3-CV - Filed on September 1, 2006

This appeal involves the financial aspects of the dissolution of a marriage that lasted approximately ten years. Both parties sought a divorce in the Chancery Court for Putnam County. Following a bench trial, the trial court granted the wife a divorce and approved a permanent parenting plan designating her as primary residential parent for the parties' two children. In addition, the trial court classified the parties' assets, divided the marital estate, reduced the husband's alimony arrearage to a judgment for alimony in solido, and ordered the husband to pay the wife $350 per month in longterm alimony. The husband takes issue on this appeal with the manner in which the trial court classified the parties' assets and divided the marital estate and with the trial court's decision to require him to pay long-term alimony. We have determined that the trial court erred in its classification of the parties' property. However, we find that the evidence fully supports the manner in which the trial court divided the parties' marital estate, as well as the trial court's decision to award the wife long-term alimony. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Chancery Court Modified and Affirmed WILLIAM C. KOCH , JR., P.J., M.S., delivered the opinion of the court, in which FRANK G. CLEMENT , JR., J., joined. PATRICIA J. COTTRELL, J., filed a separate concurring opinion. Craig P. Fickling, Cookeville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Terry Wayne Fox. Thomas F. Bloom, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Vicki Lynn Fox. OPINION I. Terry Fox and Vicki Lynn Hensley were married in August 1993 in Putnam County. Mr. Fox was thirty-one years old at the time and was eight years older than Ms. Fox.1 Ms. Fox had been widowed when her first husband was killed in an automobile accident while serving in the military

1

Ms. Hensley changed her surname to "Fox" following the marriage in 1993.

in Japan. She entered the marriage with $544,000 in assets that she had received as a result of her first husband's death. Mr. Fox brought minimal assets into the marriage. Mr. Fox worked mostly as a truck driver earning slightly more than $20,000 per year. Ms. Fox worked for a healthcare company until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. After she was forced to stop working, Ms. Fox received disability payments from a private policy but was ineligible to draw Social Security disability benefits because of her short work history. In 2001, the Foxes traveled to Russia to adopt a set of infant twins

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