Marci Kington sought "Permanent Spousal Support" at $10,000 a month despite the fact that:
9 at least have a 15,000-dollar-a-month lifestyle
- She left a well-paying ($60,000/year) job to move to Seattle to live with a man she met on the internet.
- She made no effort to find employment at all since separation (nearly eight years)
- We were already divorced.
Judge Mark A. Juhas awarded her $0.
Here's an excerpt from the court transcript:
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27 THE COURT: How do you get out of -- she quit a
28 60,000-dollar-a-year job, I think.
120
1 MS. HAMMERS: She did --
2 THE COURT: A few months after separation, she
3 left her job.
4 MS. HAMMERS: About seven months after separation
5 she left her job. That's true.
6 THE COURT: Okay. Seven months.
7 MS. HAMMERS: She did. But her testimony was
8 she knew her job was going to be ending. She had
9 been demoted already, and she wanted to start her own
10 photography business, which is what she did.
11 THE COURT: I don't remember that, and there was
12 no evidence other than her saying -- I don't remember
13 her testifying to that. But I will assume she did for a
14 moment. If she did, "I know my job was going to end so
15 I am going to leave and start my own business somewhere
16 else, start from scratch," how is that his issue?
17 MS. HAMMERS: Well, she attempted to work. She
18 attempted to get her business going. She did in fact --
19 THE COURT: I think you have a very weak spousal
20 support argument because she has a 60,000-dollar-a-year
21 job in Los Angeles. She has a photography business in
22 L.A., which I don't really know much about. And she
23 quits and moves and starts a brand-new business
24 somewhere else. All of which she can certainly do. I
25 have no information on what her marital lifestyle was in
26 Seattle at what; what Mr. Luchsinger made. I don't have
27 information on what she made, although it was down in
28 the grass admittedly.
121
1 MS. HAMMERS: She testified to it.
2 THE COURT: I don't have much information, but
3 it's some. And apparently the relationship with
4 Mr. Luchsinger didn't work out, and so she moved back to
5 Tennessee. In the past two years, at least, she has
6 done nothing to search for a job. How is that
7 Mr. Fong's obligation to support her? She can go out
8 and kind a minimum-wage job. I have no evidence at all
9 that she's done anything except sit at home and read
10 about a zillion blog postings.
11 MS. HAMMERS: Well, she did a lot of other
12 things, Your Honor.
13 THE COURT: Not look for a job isn't one of them.
14 MS. HAMMERS: That's true.
15 THE COURT: I think you have a very, very weak
16 support argument. She quit a perfectly good job, moved
17 out of the area where she had some contacts here.
18 Started a brand-new business up there because she wanted
19 to start a new romantic relationship, which is all
20 right. I am not being critical of that. But now you
21 are reaching way back, and I don't have much
22 information. And then I have no information on what
23 she's doing to look for a job now, except nothing is the
24 evidence that I have.
25 MS. HAMMERS: Well, I think, Your Honor, even if
26 she had not quit her job at 60,000 dollars a year, that
27 is 5,000 a month. Right?
28 THE COURT: Something.
122
1 MS. HAMMERS: It is something.
2 THE COURT: So what --
3 MS. HAMMERS: But still, nothing near what their
4 marital standard of living was.
5 THE COURT: So what do I award her for spousal
6 support?
7 MS. HAMMERS: I would give her spousal
8 support for the -- for something that would allow her to
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