Kendra Satterwhite Smith v. Anthony Thomas Smith

Rel: September 5, 2025

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue,
Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections
may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter.

ALABAMA COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS
SPECIAL TERM, 2025
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Kendra Satterwhite Smith

v.

Anthony Thomas Smith

Appeal from Shelby Circuit Court
(DR-19-900092)

EDWARDS, Judge.

In February 2019, Kendra Satterwhite Smith ("the wife") filed in

the Shelby Circuit Court ("the trial court") a complaint seeking a divorce

from Anthony Thomas Smith ("the husband"). The husband filed an

answer and a counterclaim for a divorce. Although the trial court
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initially set the trial for March 30, 2020, the trial court continued the

trial in compliance with our supreme court's administrative orders

respecting the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial court reset the trial 14

times between March 2020 and April 25, 2023. The trial was commenced

on April 25, 2023, and was continued to and concluded on July 25, 2023.

On May 23, 2024, the trial court entered a judgment divorcing the

parties. Among other things, the judgment awarded the husband the

marital residence, which the husband had owned before the parties

married in November 2015. The trial court determined that the marital

residence had appreciated over the term of the marriage in the amount

of "Two Hundred and Seventy-Six Thousand Three Hundred Dollars"

($276,300), that the wife was entitled to a "Forty Percent (40%) share of

the appreciation in equity in the marital residence," and that the 40%

share to which the wife was entitled amounted to "One Hundred Thirty

Eight One Hundred and Fifty Dollars ($106,920.00)." 1 However, the trial

court declared that, because the wife had removed $99,000 from a joint

1We recognize that the "One Hundred Thirty Eight One Hundred

and Fifty Dollars" and the $106,920 amounts stated in the judgment
regarding the 40% share of the increase in the equity of the marital
residence due to the wife conflict significantly and that neither amount
is 40% of $276,300.
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bank account owned by the parties at the time of the parties' separation, 2

had "sold her pre-marital residence and kept all proceeds therefrom in

her separate [bank] account, and [had] kept all of the proceeds from the

sale of her [late] brother's [house] without apply[ing] any of the proceeds

to the marital assets," the wife's share of the equity already had been

realized. The trial court further declined to award the wife any portion

of the husband's retirement account, explaining that

"the value of the [h]usband's Southern Company Employees
Savings Plan from the date of the parties' marriage until the
date of the filing of the complaint for divorce in this matter
increased by Fifty-Five Thousand Two Hundred and Five and
92/100 Dollars ($55,205.92). Due to the brevity of the
marriage, and to the excess of marital property retained by
the [w]ife during the marriage as established in the preceding
paragraph [regarding the marital residence], the wife is not
entitled to any portion of the [h]usband's retirement account."

The trial court also awarded the wife all rights to her real-estate business

and awarded each party any accounts maintained in his or her sole name.

The judgment made each party responsible for his or her own attorney

fees.

2Testimony in the record indicates that the joint bank account had

been depleted by the time of the trial by the wife's removal of $99,000
and the husband's removal of the remaining funds in that account.
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The wife filed a timely postjudgment motion directed at the

judgment. In that motion, among other arguments not pertinent to the

issues in this appeal, she argued that the trial court had made an error

in its calculation of her 40% share of the increase in the equity of the

marital residence; she correctly contended that "[f]orty percent (40%) of

was $276,300.00 [(the amount the trial court calculated to be the increase

in the equity in the marital residence)] is $110,520.00, not $106,920.00."3

She further argued that the trial court had erroneously set off certain

amounts against the award to her of a share of the increased equity in

the marital residence. Specifically, she contended that she had been

entitled to the $99,000 she had withdrawn from the joint bank account

because that amount was half of the funds in that account at that time

and that the trial court had "erroneously [determined] that [she had] kept

all proceeds from the sale of her pre-marital residence and her [late]

brother's [house] without applying any of the proceeds to the marital

assets." The wife contended that she had not received any of the proceeds

from the sale of her late brother's house. She complained that the trial

3The wife made no argument concerning the striking difference
between the "One Hundred Thirty Eight One Hundred and Fifty Dollars"
and the $106,920 amounts recited in the judgment.
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court had failed to recognize "significant contributions" she had made

from her separate funds toward the marital residence, including, she

stated, paying mortgage payments, purchasing furnishings, paying

utility bills, and funding maintenance. She also stated that "[t]he correct

figure [of her share of the marital residence], based on a fifty percent

(50%) share of the appreciation, should be $138,150.00." 4 The wife

further argued that the trial court should have awarded her one-half of

the increase in the value of the husband's retirement account and that

she should have been awarded a reasonable attorney fee. After a hearing,

the trial court denied the wife's postjudgment motion, and the wife timely

appealed.

The only witnesses at the trial were the husband and the wife. The

wife testified that the parties had married on November 4, 2015, and that

they had separated in February 2019, shortly before she commenced her

divorce action. The wife admitted that she and the husband had been

married for only three years and three months before she commenced her

divorce action. She testified that she had sold the house that she had

4We note that this amount is the amount reflected in the written

value of the wife's 40% share of the increased equity in the marital
residence contained in the judgment.
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lived in before the marriage and that she had received between $7,000

and $8,000 in proceeds, all of which she had deposited into her separate

bank account. She also testified that her earnings as a real-estate agent,

which, she said, were approximately $2,200 per month during the

marriage, had also been placed into her separate bank account and not

into the parties' joint bank account, which had been established in

December 2017, shortly after the birth of the parties' child. The wife

admitted that none of the funds that had been held in the joint bank

account in February 2019 had been supplied by her.

The wife admitted that she had sold real estate during the marriage

and after the parties' separation, but, she said, "not that often." She

admitted that her 2022 income-tax return reflected that her income that

year was $74,000. According to the wife, she had used her employment

income to pay for groceries and for everything required by her two older

children from a previous relationship. She also said that she had used

her income to pay for her work expenses. She testified that she had paid

the mortgage payment on the marital residence "before" but admitted

that the husband usually made that payment. She further testified that

she had expended her personal funds on "furnishings" for the marital

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residence, but she failed to elaborate on what furnishings she had

purchased for the marital residence.

According to the wife, in 2016, the marital residence had been

appraised at $382,000. She testified that, based on a market analysis

that she had conducted, the marital residence was, as of the time of trial,

valued at $658,300. Thus, the wife explained, the marital residence had

appreciated in value in the amount of $276,300, and she requested that

she be awarded one half of that amount, or $138,150. She also requested

one-half of the increased value of the husband's retirement account,

which, she said, totaled $55,205.

The husband testified that he had purchased the marital residence

in October 2013, before he met the wife. He said that he still owed

$190,000, "give or take $10,000," on the mortgage associated with the

marital residence. The husband conceded that the marital residence had

appreciated in value and that the marital residence was valued at

$658,300 "give or take"; he stated that it could be worth $550,000 or

$650,000 but not $750,000. He testified that he did not believe that the

wife was entitled to any of the equity in the marital residence, because,

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he said, he had owned it before the marriage and because she had not

contributed financially to the parties' marriage.

According to the husband, his yearly income ranged between

$90,000 and $100,000. He later testified that he had earned $103,000

through his employment in the previous year and that he also earned a

yearly bonus, which, he said, he usually received each March; he said

that he had received a $16,000 bonus in March 2023. He also testified

that the wife had not provided any of the funds in his retirement account,

which, he said, had been instituted "long before" the parties' marriage.

Thus, he stated, he did not believe that she was entitled to any portion of

his retirement account.

The husband opined that the joint bank account was not marital

property. He explained that he had initially held a separate bank

account from the wife but had opened the joint bank account after the

birth of the parties' child in 2017. He stated that the funds contained in

the joint bank account were solely his, were derived from his income, and

included $76,000 that he had borrowed from his parents in 2016. He also

said that the joint bank account contained approximately $41,000 of the

profit that he had realized from the sale of a house that he had purchased

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and renovated. 5 He testified that the wife had not assisted in the

renovation of that house. Like the wife, he testified that neither the

proceeds from the sale of the wife's premarital residence nor her

employment income been placed into the joint bank account. He said that

he had never asked the wife what she did with the income she earned

from her real-estate sales.

The testimony regarding the house that had been owned by the

wife's late brother indicates that the wife's brother had passed away and

that the husband had purchased his house at a foreclosure sale on the

courthouse steps. The husband testified that

"it was told to me her parents had invested a lot of money in
that house, redid it, whatnot, it was an older home. The house
went for sale here on the courthouse steps in foreclosure. I
purchased that house cash money, fifty-eight thousand
dollars roughly. They compensated me back, gave me my
money back for that house, and in turn sold it for a profit of
according to tax records around ninety-two thousand dollars,
eighty, ninety thousand dollars profit they recovered due to
that."6

5Specifically, the husband testified that he had purchased a house

for $176,000 at an auction held on "the courthouse steps" and that he had
sold the house, after renovating it, for $217,000.

6We are uncertain whether the foreclosure sale took place before

the death of the wife's late brother, when he owned the house, or whether
it took place after his death, when the house was owned by either his
estate or one or more of his heirs. The record also fails to reflect exactly
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The husband presented no evidence indicating that he had ever held an

ownership interest in the late brother's house or what, if any, agreement

he may have had with the wife or her parents regarding his purchase of

the late brother's house at the foreclosure sale and the subsequent sale

of that house. However, the husband stated that he had not received any

of the profit on the sale of the wife's late brother's house and, specifically,

that none of the proceeds from its sale had been placed into the joint bank

account.

When asked if she had realized any proceeds from the sale of her

late brother's house, the wife testified that she "wasn't in that transition

[sic]."7 She said that her late brother's house had not been titled in her

name but had instead been titled in the name of her parents. She

explained that her mother had kept the proceeds from the sale of that

house.

when the husband assisted in the purchase of the late brother's house,
when the husband was reimbursed for his expenditure, and when the
house was ultimately sold.

7We question whether the wife actually testified that she had not

been involved in the "transaction" that resulted in the sale of her late
brother's house.
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The wife testified that she had separated from the husband because

she was worried about her safety and the safety of the parties' child. She

explained that the environment in the marital residence had been "very

unpleasant" and "controlled, mood swings, not healthy for [the child] to

be around." She indicated that the husband had spoken to her in a

negative way and that "his temperament had started to rise again."

On appeal, the wife argues that the division of the marital property

was inequitable. In her brief, the wife indicates that the marital estate

comprised the $200,000 contained in the joint bank account, the $276,300

appreciation in the value of the marital residence, and the $55,205

appreciation in the value of the husband's retirement account, which

total $531,505. She complains that the trial court incorrectly calculated

her 40% share of the $276,300 in increased equity in the marital

residence, which, she said, should be $110,520 and not $106,920; she

further contends that she was entitled to a greater share of the

appreciation in the value of the marital residence than the 40% the trial

court awarded. She further argues that the trial court should not have

considered the proceeds she received from the sale of her premarital

residence or the alleged proceeds from the sale of her late brother's house,

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which she testified she had not received, in determining that she had

"realized" her share of the increased equity in the marital residence. In

addition, she complains that she was entitled to the $99,000 that she had

withdrawn from the joint bank account as an equal division of a marital

asset. She also contends that she was entitled to one-half of the $55,205

appreciation in the value of the husband's retirement account. Finally,

she contends that the trial court should have awarded her a reasonable

attorney fee.

We begin our analysis by observing the oft-stated principle that

" ' "[p]roperty divisions are not required to be equal, but must be equitable

in light of the evidence, and the determination as to what is equitable

rests within the sound discretion of the trial court." ' " Ex parte Durbin,

818 So. 2d 404, 408-09 (Ala. 2001) (quoting Morgan v. Morgan, 686 So.

2d 308, 310 (Ala. Civ. App. 1996), quoting in turn Duckett v. Duckett, 669

So. 2d 195, 197 (Ala. Civ. App. 1995)). The wife concedes that a trial court

dividing the property of the parties upon a divorce "'should consider

several factors, including the length of the marriage; the age and health

of the parties; the future prospects of the parties; the source, type, and

value of the property; the standard of living to which the parties have

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become accustomed during the marriage; and the fault of the parties

contributing to the breakup of the marriage.'" Yokley v. Yokley, 231 So.

3d 355, 360 (Ala. Civ. App. 2017) (quoting Golden v. Golden, 681 So. 2d

605, 608 (Ala. Civ. App. 1996)). Because "'[m]atters of property division

rest soundly within the trial court's discretion[,] its determination

regarding those matters will not be disturbed on appeal unless its

discretion was plainly and palpably abused.'" Id.

The trial court's judgment is, in a word, unclear regarding the

amount that the wife is due as her share of the equity in the marital

residence. According to the terms of the judgment, the wife is entitled to

either 40% of $276,300, which is, if correctly calculated, $110,520; "One

Hundred Thirty Eight One Hundred and Fifty Dollars" ($138,150, which

is one half of $276,300); or $106,920, which is the numerical statement of

the amount stated in the judgment. Although the wife complained in her

postjudgment motion that the trial court's percentage calculation in the

judgment was incorrect, the trial court failed to issue a corrected

judgment to clear up the miscalculation or to address the ambiguity in

the award. Thus, we must reverse the judgment and remand the case to

the trial court for it to indicate clearly the share of the equity to which

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the wife is entitled. See Shipp v. Shipp, 435 So. 2d 1298, 1299 (Ala. Civ.

App. 1983) (reversing a divorce judgment because a provision within the

judgment was ambiguous and uncertain). However, because the trial

court also determined that the wife's share of the equity, whatever

amount that might be, had been realized through her withdrawal of the

$99,000 from the joint bank account, her retention of the proceeds derived

from the sale of her premarital residence, and her alleged retention of an

unspecified amount of proceeds from the sale of her late brother's house,

and because those same issues will likely recur when the trial court

considers entering a new judgment on remand, we address, in part, the

wife's arguments relating to those issues.

The fact that the husband created a joint bank account held jointly

by him and the wife, coupled with the reasonable inference, based on the

husband's testimony that his income was placed into the joint bank

account, that the husband paid his expenses, including the mortgage

payment on the marital residence, from the joint bank account, supports

a conclusion that the joint bank account is marital property subject to

division. See Huckabee v. Huckabee, 544 So. 2d 170, 172 (Ala. Civ. App.

1989) (determining that "money received from [an oil] lease [on property

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owned by the husband before the marriage] was placed in a certificate of

deposit jointly owned by the parties" and stating that, "[u]nder these

circumstances, the source of marital property is not controlling"); Isham

v. Isham, 464 So. 2d 109, 111 (Ala. Civ. App. 1985) (affirming the award

to a wife of certain portions of certificates of deposit and money-market

accounts because they had been "taken in the joint names of the parties"

and stating that "[i]t has been held that the trial court is under no

requirement to attempt to set aside gifts or inheritances when these

assets become the property of both spouses"). Indeed, the trial court

references the joint bank account as being a "marital account," indicating,

perhaps, that it considered the joint bank account to have been a marital

asset. In contrast, the judgment appears to conclude that the wife was

not entitled to any portion of the funds contained in the joint bank

account at the time of the separation of the parties and that the entirety

of the $99,000 the wife removed from the joint bank account should serve

to satisfy, at least in part, the portion of the increase in the equity of the

marital residence to which the trial court determined that the wife was

entitled. Certainly, the evidence before the trial court supports the

conclusion that the joint bank account had not, in fact, been funded by

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joint contributions from the parties during the marriage. Instead, the

husband testified that the funds in the joint bank account were provided

solely by him, and the wife admitted that she had not placed any money

that she had earned from her employment or the proceeds that she had

received from the sale of her premarital residence into the joint bank

account, which, notably, did not exist at the time she sold her premarital

residence. Thus, the trial court could have, based on the source of the

funds contained in the joint bank account or the relatively short duration

of the marriage, both of which are factors relevant to the division of

property upon a divorce, reasonably determined that the funds in the

joint bank account should not be equally divided between the parties.

Because we are reversing the trial court's judgment based on the

ambiguity and uncertainty in the amount of the increase in the equity in

the marital residence actually due to the wife, we instruct the trial court,

on remand, as part of its clarification of the property division in the

judgment, to consider the joint bank account as marital property and to

determine the portion of the account, if any, to which the wife is entitled.

On appeal, the wife further contends that the trial court erred by

setting off against the equity to which she was entitled from the marital

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residence the proceeds that she received from the sale of her premarital

residence and any unspecified proceeds that trial court determined that

she received from the sale of her late brother's house. The wife's

premarital residence was clearly her separate property at the time of the

marriage. See Nichols v. Nichols, 824 So. 2d 797, 802 (Ala. Civ. App.

2001) ("The separate estate of the parties in a divorce proceeding includes

property owned prior to the marriage .…"). A party's separate property

may not be considered in a division of the marital estate. See Ex parte

LaMoreaux, 845 So. 2d 801, 806 (Ala. 2002) (explaining that property

acquired by gift or through inheritance by a spouse during a marriage

retains its status as separate property of the recipient spouse unless the

property is used for the common benefit of the marriage and that, unless

it is used for the common benefit of the marriage, the property may not

be considered in the division of the parties' property); and Hull v. Hull,

887 So. 2d 904, 908-09 (Ala. Civ. App. 2003) (reversing a judgment

because the trial court considered in its division of property a wife's

separate property that had not been used for the common benefit of the

parties and stating that "the trial court was precluded by [Ala. Code

1975,] § 30-2-51(a)[,] from considering [that separate property] at all in

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dividing the parties' marital property" (emphasis added)). Although the

wife's decision to retain the proceeds she received from the sale of her

premarital residence in her separate bank account could have

maintained the status of that money as her separate property such that

it could not be considered in the trial court's division of marital property,

see Ala. Code 1975, § 30-2-51(a) ("Notwithstanding the foregoing, the

judge may not take into consideration any property acquired prior to the

marriage of the parties or by inheritance or gift unless the judge finds

from the evidence that property, or income produced by the property, has

been used regularly for the common benefit of the parties during their

marriage."), the wife testified that she had used money from her separate

bank account to pay for "all the groceries," i.e., that she regularly paid for

certain of the parties' living expenses out of her separate bank account.

Thus, at the trial court's discretion, the wife's separate bank account

could have been considered in the division of property. See Morgan v.

Morgan, 322 So. 3d 531, 540 (Ala. Civ. App. 2020) (explaining that

"[n]othing in the language of § 30-2-51(a) indicates that property

acquired by one spouse before marriage or property acquired through

inheritance or gift is transmuted into marital property by its use for the

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common benefit of the parties" and instead that a trial court may, in its

discretion, consider such property in its division of the marital estate);

see also Ex parte Durbin, 818 So. 2d at 408, and Ex parte Drummond,

785 So. 2d 358, 362 (Ala. 2000). We question how the trial court could

have considered the wife's separate bank account in its division of the

marital property, however, because the record contains no indication of

the value of that account at the time of the parties' separation or at the

time of the trial. If the trial court concluded that the wife's separate bank

account should not be considered in the division of marital property, the

trial court should not have considered the proceeds from the sale of the

wife's premarital residence in making its division of property. See Ex

parte LaMoreaux, 845 So. 2d at 806; Hull, 887 So. 2d at 908.

As the wife argues, the trial court's decision to offset the wife's

interest in the increase in the equity in the marital residence by the

proceeds from the sale of her late brother's house is error. The husband

presented no evidence that he held an ownership interest in that house

or that the wife had realized any profit or had retained any proceeds from

the sale of that house. Instead, he testified that he had been told that

the wife's parents had put a lot of money into that house, that "they" had

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reimbursed him the $58,000 he had used to purchase the house at the

foreclosure sale, and that "they" had sold it for a profit. Thus, the

husband testified that the wife's parents -- not the wife -- sold the late

brother's house for a profit. The wife testified that she had not held any

ownership interest in the late brother's house and that her mother had

retained any proceeds or profit realized from the sale; the record contains

no contrary evidence. We recognize that, under the ore tenus rule, a trial

court may disbelieve or discount all or part of the testimony of a witness.

See Williams v. Williams, 905 So. 2d 820, 826 (Ala. Civ. App. 2004)

(quoting Glazner v. Glazner, 807 So. 2d 555, 559 (Ala. Civ. App. 2001))

("The presumption of correctness under the ore tenus rule 'is based on

the trial court's unique position to observe the witnesses and to assess

their demeanor and credibility.' "). However, the trial court may not

indulge in an inference that is not fairly deducible from the evidence

presented. Khirieh v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 594 So. 2d 1220,

1224 (Ala. 1992) (explaining that "[a]n 'inference' is a reasonable

deduction of fact, unknown or unproved, from a fact that is known or

proved" and that "[a]n inference must be based on a known or proved

fact"). Because the record contains no evidence indicating that the wife

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received any proceeds from the sale of her late brother's house, the trial

court erred in using some unspecified amount of proceeds from the sale

of the late brother's house to offset the wife's share of the increase in the

equity in the marital residence. On remand, the trial court may not

include any unspecified share of proceeds realized from the sale of the

late brother's house in fashioning its property division.

In conclusion, we reverse the judgment of the trial court relating to

the award to the wife of a share of the increased equity in the marital

residence, and we remand the cause with instructions that the trial court

specify the exact amount of the equity in the marital residence to which

the wife is entitled. In addition, the trial court should determine whether

the wife's separate bank account should be included in the division of the

parties' property and should adjust the property division as necessary

based on that conclusion. Because we have also determined that the trial

court may not offset the proceeds the wife received from the sale of her

late brother's house and because we have instructed the trial court to

consider what portion, if any, of the funds held in the joint bank account

should be awarded to the wife, the trial court is permitted upon remand

to reconsider all aspects of the property division and to adjust the equities

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based upon the evidence contained in the record. We therefore pretermit

consideration of the wife's arguments relating to the overall inequity of

the property division, including her arguments relating to her request for

an award of a portion of the husband's retirement account and the trial

court's decision not to award her an attorney fee.

REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.

Moore, P.J., and Hanson, Fridy, and Bowden, JJ., concur.

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