Articles Taged in Alimony
March 19, 2025
by SmartSites
Alimony payments may be reduced or terminated when a former spouse enters into a supportive relationship. The payor bears the burden to prove that a supportive relationship exists. Some of the factors that Florida courts assess in determining whether a supportive relationship exists are as follows:
First, whether the recipient and the cohabiting party have held themselves out as a married couple.
Second, the amount of time that the parties have resided together in a permanent residence.
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March 19, 2025
by SmartSites
In an alimony case captioned Speigner v. Speigner, the parties were married for almost twenty (20) years. Both parties worked during the course of the marriage. The Husband had the larger income. The Wife worked, raised the parties’ children and ran the household.
After hearing the evidence, the trial court found that the Wife had a need for support and the former husband had the ability to pay. The court stated that the Wife had significant business acumen and found that both the Husband and the Wife had the capacity to earn additional income. The trial court awarded the Wife eight years of durational alimony.
The Florida Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s ruling. In reversing the lower court’s ruling the appellate court pointed out that in Florida, a long-term marriage is a marriage that exceeds seventeen years. There is a rebuttable presumption that permanent alimony will be awarded following a long-term marriage. This presumption can only be rebutted if there is proof that after termination of the alimony payments the recipient spouse has the capacity to support him or herself at the marital standard of living. Durational alimony is only appropriate if the court finds that the recipient spouse does not have an ongoing need for support on a permanent basis. In order to justify an award of durational alimony following a long-term marriage, a court must find that the recipient spouse is capable of attaining a level of self-support that is commensurate with the marital standard of living at the time that the durational alimony expires.
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March 19, 2025
by SmartSites
A recently decided alimony case captioned Rodolph v. Rodolph involved two appeals by the husband. Since both appeals involved the same parties and the same facts, the Florida Court of Appeal consolidated the cases into one appeal. In Rodolph v. Rodolph, the husband appealed the lower court’s order denying his Supplemental Petition for Termination or Modification of Alimony. Additionally, the Husband appealed the award of $39,000.00 in attorney’s fees to his wife.
In this case, the husband and wife were married for 33 years. At the time of the divorce, the Husband had been a corrections officer for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office for twenty-four years. In the final judgment of dissolution, the wife was granted permanent periodic alimony and a portion of husband’s retirement funds. Husband filed a Supplemental Petition to Either Modify or Terminate Alimony. Husband’s Supplemental Petition for Modification of Alimony alleged that husband did not have the ability to continue to pay alimony because he was involuntarily unemployed due to his heart condition, his neck and back problems, and carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrist and arm. Husband also alleged that his wife no longer had a need for alimony because she received the first share of husband’s retirement funds, she was receiving disability payments and her monthly expenses were reduced. While Husband’s Supplemental Petition for Modification was pending, Wife filed a Motion for Contempt of Court against Husband because Husband ceased making alimony payments.
At the hearing on husband’s Supplemental Petition for Modification of Alimony, husband testified that he was receiving social security payments, but was earning no income. He also testified that he remarried and was living with his new wife and her children. Husband purchased a new home and incurred various expenses. In order to meet his expenses, husband withdrew $3,500 per month from his retirement account. Wife testified that her expenses for rent, association fees, water, garbage, insurance, cable, and donations to religious organizations exceeded her income.
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Alimony
March 19, 2025
by SmartSites
Durational alimony terminates when either of the parties dies or the recipient of alimony remarries.
In a unique case captioned Dills v. Perez the parties’ marital settlement agreement contained a provision that stated that the former husband’s obligation to pay durational alimony to the former wife was non-modifiable. At the time that the parties got divorced, they entered into a marital settlement agreement that was incorporated into their final judgment of dissolution of marriage.
The parties’ marital settlement agreement required the former husband to pay durational alimony to the former wife for a period of forty-eight (48) months. Additionally, the parties’ marital settlement agreement contained a provision that the former husband’s obligation to pay durational alimony was non-modifiable. Although the parties’ marital settlement agreement contained a provision that the former husband’s alimony obligation would not terminate upon the former husband’s death, it did not specifically discuss the effect that remarriage would have on the former husband’s durational alimony obligation.
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Alimony
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Alimony
