Fathers Battling Injustice

USA: Ex-Husband Gets $3M, Kids in Divorce Verdict

Posted By: Susan
Date: Thursday, 16 March 2000, at 9:53 a.m.

Ex-Husband Gets $3M, Kids in

Divorce Verdict

Richmond Eustis

Fulton County Daily Report

March 15, 2000

When Richard Grimm and Gail Raper divorced, the

jury awarded him the house, the kids -- and nearly $3

million.

Grimm's lawyer, Jeffrey B. Bogart of Bogart & Bogart in

Atlanta, says the award is unusual for two reasons: its

size and that his wife -- chief executive officer of Morris

& Raper Realtors of Atlanta -- will have to pay her

ex-husband.

Bogart says that when a couple divorces, men

generally end up paying alimony. Though his client

owns a business, it was clear who was supporting

the family, Bogart says.

"I told the jurors from the beginning that this is a

gender-reversal case," he says.

According to court records, Raper is the sole

shareholder of the real estate firm. She had total

assets of about $6 million, says Bogart, including a

100-foot-plus houseboat dubbed the "Mis-Chief III."

WIFE'S BUSINESS SOARED

Grimm owns Cartunes Inc., a car stereo and audio

shop in Roswell. But over the course of their 20-year

marriage, Raper's business fortunes soared while

Grimm's soured and Cartunes was losing money,

Bogart says.

As Raper's business took off, Grimm and the rest of

the family came to rely more heavily on her income,

Bogart says, and by the marriage's end, Raper was

bailing out Grimm's business with loans and credit

payments. Raper filed for divorce, Bogart says. Court

documents show that Raper claimed the marriage

was "irretrievably broken."

"She paid the mortgage; she paid all the utility bills.

She was basically supporting the family," Bogart says.

Grimm "had a business, but his primary concern was

the children."

Raper's lawyer, Kenneth H. Schatten of Kresses,

Benda, Lenner & Schatten, did not return a phone for

comment on this story.

After a week-long trial, jurors decided Raper will

continue to provide for her family at least into the next

decade. In their March 6 verdict, jurors gave Grimm

the family home and a cash payment of $700,000.

Jurors then tacked on a lump-sum alimony payment

of $219,000 plus $160,000 a year for 10 years. Raper

v. Grimm No. CV-00087 (Fult. Super. March 6, 2000).

Since the parties had agreed that Grimm would

continue as the primary custodian for the couple's two

children, the jury also awarded Grimm child support

payments of $5,000 a month. The total award, Bogart

says, amounts to a little more than $3 million.

Bogart says the parties will return to court Tuesday for

a second hearing on attorney fees. Fulton County

Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes awarded

Bogart $40,000 in legal fees but Bogart is asking for

another $90,000.

Veteran Atlanta divorce lawyer John C. Mayoue, of

Warner, Mayoue & Bates says lump-sum alimony

payments such as this one allows jurors to divide

property without destroying the assets. In this case,

Raper's company remains intact but Grimm gets a

large sum of money.

"Lump-sum alimony, to me, is the equalizer," Mayoue

says. "It's the jury's method of equalizing property

division."

Bogart says he was a little worried as the jury foreman

read through the division of property, and his client

ended up with only the house and a comparatively

small cash payment.

"After they went through the property, my heart fell to

the ground," he says.

The alimony news came at the very end of the

six-page verdict form, Bogart says. It erased his own

anxiety and amazed Grimm, Bogart says.

"He was in, and remains, in a state of shock" at the

size of the verdict, he says.

Mayoue says such alimony payments often depend

on the couple's finances. Rather than relying on

gender, the payments rely on economic concerns, he

says, adding, "It's really not applied at all from a

gender perspective."

To Bogart, the decision indicates a departure from

similar divorce cases.

"I don't know of any case where a fellow has gotten

such a significant amount," he says.

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