Opinion
No. 11798.
April 7, 1981.
APPEAL FROM 24TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON, STATE OF LOUISIANA, HONORABLE WALLACE C. LEBRUN, J.
James L. Cannella, Donelon, Cannella Donelon, Metairie, for plaintiff-appellant.
Robert A. Pitre, Jr., Gretna, for defendant-appellee.
Before REDMANN, GULOTTA and SCHOTT, JJ.
An ex-husband appeals from a judgment refusing to terminate or reduce alimony.
The ex-husband had had business reverses but is now employed for $2,900 gross monthly. He has remarried and his wife has modest earnings; he has adopted her teenage daughter.
The ex-wife took employment as a school bus driver beginning September 1979 from which her 1979 federal income tax return, prepared by a professional preparer, shows she had gross income of $7,312.81 and employee expenses of $4,413.23 (presumably including all expenses and depreciations). Her adjusted gross of $2,899.58 for that four-month period means she averaged $724.89 monthly. If she earns $724.89 monthly during the nine months of the school year, that would average $543 or less per month when spread over the 12 months of the calendar year. Included in her expenses are $278 house note and unusual medical expenses ($166) allegedly attributable to cancer.
We cannot find an abuse of the trial court's discretion in fixing reasonable alimony at $500.
Affirmed.