Background
Phuong Nancy Thi Bui and Lewis Bui married in 2008 and have two children. In their dissolution case, the parties resolved parenting issues but disputed property division, maintenance, and child support.
Husband was a full-time emergency physician for HCA Houston and also performed contract work for other hospitals. He owned a 65% interest in Hue Health Inc. A jointly retained expert could not complete a valuation of Hue Health because husband did not provide requested financial records. The district court sanctioned husband, valued his interest in Hue Health at $1,282,872, found he had dissipated at least $122,817 in marital assets, and set his monthly income at $29,757 for maintenance and child-support purposes.
The Court’s Holding
The court affirmed the property division. The district court did not abuse its discretion by drawing an adverse inference from husband’s disclosure failures or by adopting wife’s proposed Hue Health valuation, which was supported by the expert’s independent research and testimony. Although the district court double counted $33,338 related to a property purchase in its dissipation calculation, the error was harmless in relation to the roughly $2.8 million marital estate.
The court reversed the maintenance and child-support rulings. Husband’s HCA Houston employment was full-time, and the statutes exclude income from additional work beyond full-time employment when calculating gross income for these purposes. The district court improperly included husband’s contract-work income. Its child-support calculation also added maintenance to wife’s income without subtracting it from husband’s income. On remand, the district court must recalculate income, reconsider maintenance and child support using current financial evidence, and consider wife’s request for appellate attorney fees.
Key Takeaways
- A spouse bears the affirmative duty to disclose business financial information; a nonparty business partner’s lack of cooperation does not excuse noncompliance.
- A valuation supported by available credible evidence may stand when the party with access to business records fails to provide them.
- Income from work beyond full-time employment generally cannot be included in gross income for maintenance and child support.
Why It Matters
The decision distinguishes between permissible sanctions and evidentiary consequences for incomplete financial disclosures in a dissolution case, and the statutory limits on income used to calculate support. It also underscores that maintenance must be accounted for on both sides of a child-support calculation.