Todd Michael Perks v. Elizabeth Mundy (Perkins) Sloane, M2024-00756-COA-R3-CV

Todd Michael Perkins (Husband) and Elizabeth Sloane (Wife) divorced after a marriage of approximately two and a half years with no children shared between them.
The core dispute centered on whether five real properties acquired during the marriage should be classified as marital or the husband’s separate property.
Husband provided proof that all five properties were purchased with funds traceable to property he owned and sold prior to the marriage.
The trial court classified the properties as Husband’s separate property, finding that Wife did not substantially contribute to their appreciation or maintenance.
The court divided only a few personal/retirement accounts as marital property, awarded Wife a distributive payment, assigned most legal fees to Wife, and denied her request for appellate attorney's fees.
On appeal, the circuit court's property rulings were affirmed, but the attorney’s fees allocation was vacated and remanded due to inadequate findings.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Classification of five properties	Properties acquired during marriage should be marital; husband commingled or transmuted them	Properties were acquired with separate, pre-marital funds, no commingling or transmutation	Properties are Husband’s separate property; no commingling/transmutation
Equitable division of marital property	Court’s division was inequitable, undervalued marital estate	Equitable to restore parties to pre-marital financial positions	Division was equitable given marriage's short duration; affirmed
Division and calculation of 401(k) account value	Court failed to use correct valuation date, excluded post-separation contributions	Used value close to divorce decree; posts-divorce gains not marital	Proper to use valuation date near divorce decree; no abuse of discretion
Allocation of attorney’s fees (trial & appeal)	Error for Wife to pay 75% of her fees; seeks appellate fees	Fees should be split as court saw fit; Wife changed counsel	Trial court failed to make adequate findings as required; remanded on this issue; no appellate fees awarded

Snodgrass v. Snodgrass, 295 S.W.3d 240 (Tenn. 2009) (discusses marital vs. separate property and classification as a factual issue)
Batson v. Batson, 769 S.W.2d 849 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1988) (returning parties to pre-marital financial positions when marriage is of short duration)
Keyt v. Keyt, 244 S.W.3d 321 (Tenn. 2007) (standard for substantial contribution to appreciation of separate property)
Wallace v. Wallace, 733 S.W.2d 102 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1987) (valuation of marital assets close to divorce hearing)