Opinion ID: 2049657
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Date of absolute duty to pay alimony installments

Text: In the case of Inhabitants of Town of Norridgewock v. Inhabitants of Town of Hebron, supra , where reimbursement of the value of pauper supplies furnished in good faith to one Thomas E. Noyes by the Town of Norridgewock was resisted by the defendant Town of Hebron, this Court ruled that it was error to allow interest on the award of damages from the date of the writ to the date of the referee's award, holding that it could not be said that the defendant town was in default for nonpayment of the pauper supplies until the issue of Mr. Noyes' pauper settlement had been determined by the finding of the referee. The important practical inquiry, in each case, in which interest is in question [said the Court], is, what is the date at which this legal duty to pay, as an absolute present duty, arose. This date does not always coincide with that at which the demand is legally due and suable. Here, the defendant husband litigated in good faith before the Superior Court and the Law Court the issue, whether the remarriage of his former wife terminated the right to alimony payments under the divorce decree. Under the Town of Norridgewock case, it would seem that the earliest date from which interest, if allowable, should be computed would be the date of this Court's decision on the issue, when the defendant husband's absolute present duty to pay was finalized. It could not be from the time each alimony installment fell due.