Anderson v. Anderson

54 So.3d 850 (2010)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

H and W were married on October 2, 1994. H had two children from a previous marriage. W had one child from a previous relationship. W adopted H's children after their marriage. H did not adopt W's child. H was the pastor of Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church. W worked for the United States Army Reserve. On January 31, 2006, H filed for divorce. H alleged habitual cruel and inhuman treatment and, alternatively, irreconcilable differences. H claimed that W yelled at him for no reason; that she threatened him by reminding him multiple times about a minister's wife in Selmer, Tennessee, who had killed her husband. The children testified that they saw W hit their father a few times, but neither son named a specific instance or date. They also testified that W yelled at H for no reason. Both children claimed that she hit them. H testified that W publicly had accused him of having affairs and that she had harassed the ladies that he counseled at church because she believed that he was having affairs with them. He claimed that one lady had to change her phone number because W called and harassed her. The guardian ad litem found no evidence of child abuse. The chancellor found that H had proven that he was entitled to a divorce on the ground of habitual cruel and inhuman treatment. The chancellor relied on the evidence of W's persistent false accusations of infidelity, her ongoing emotionally abusive behavior toward the children, and 'her ongoing activities which were oppressive to H, and made the relationship unbearable.' W appealed.