Sandra K. Lewis v. Michael F. Lewis

This appeal involves a husband's obligation to provide rehabilitative support to his former wife following the dissolution of their twenty-one year marriage. The wife filed a divorce complaint in the Circuit Court for Rutherford County. After an attempted reconciliation failed, the husband filed an answer and counterclaim for divorce. The trial court conducted a bench trial and granted the wife a divorce on the ground of adultery. The trial court also ordered the husband to pay the wife $1,000 per month in rehabilitative spousal support for seven years. The husband appealed. We agree with the trial court's decision to award the wife spousal support for seven years; however we modify the judgment to clarify the support as transitional support rather than rehabilitative.