Actress Eva Longoria and San Antonio point guard Tony Parker had what was characterized as a fairy tale wedding in a French castle in 2007. Unfortunately, their marriage was not to last. Earlier this month, Eva Longoria filed for divorce from Tony Parker. Shortly thereafter, Tony Parker filed for a divorce of his own.
Although they were married, the couple spent much of their time apart. Most of the time, Eva lived in Los Angeles and Tony lived in Texas. Amidst rumors of illicit text messages and a possible affair, Eva decided to file for divorce in California. Although Parker and Longoria had a prenuptial agreement that precluded alimony, she reserved the right to seek alimony in her divorce filing. Alimony can be a scary word, and that may have been what caused Tony Parker to file for divorce in Texas a few days later.
Alimony goes by several names. We call it maintenance in Wisconsin. In Texas, it is referred to as maintenance as well. Alimony or maintenance obliges a spouse to continue to pay for the other spouse’s living expenses after divorce. Although we have a different name for the concept than California, alimony in Wisconsin and California works much the same way. Whether to award maintenance is largely a matter of judicial discretion. Family law judges consider a variety of factors including the length of the marriage, the income and earning power of both spouses and the health of the spouses.
Even though Texas and Wisconsin both call it maintenance, Texas maintenance law works differently in significant ways. In Texas, family law judges have less discretion to award maintenance. In fact, Texas only allows maintenance in a few specific situations including that the spouses need to be married for at least 10 years. Since Eva Longoria and Tony Parker were only married for three years, Eva Longoria would not be eligible for maintenance in a Texas divorce.
Source: Los Angeles Times: Tony Parker files for divorce from Eva Longoria, Texas-style; Christie D’Zurilla, 11/22/2010
