Opinion ID: 1154038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Alimony or Property Settlement

Text: The appellant argues that the trial court abused its discretion when, in off-hand remarks at the close of the modification hearing, the judge observed that the payments provided for in the original decree were really a part of the property settlement instead of alimony. The decree of divorce provided: Tom D. McMillan, Sr., is also ordered to pay to Ramona J. McMillan the sum of $800.00 per month for a period of 10 years. The first payment shall be due on April 6, 1981, and like payments shall be due monthly thereafter. This order and decree shall constitute a lien upon all the real property of Tom D. McMillan, Sr., which he receives in this decree of divorce, until all the payments are paid in full. Said lien shall also continue in existence against the estate of Tom D. McMillan, Sr., if he should die before all of said monthly payments are paid. These payments are to be alimony payments so that they are deductible upon his income tax returns. It is contended by the appellee that the trial judge treated the payment provision as a part of the property settlement between the parties but, in an attempt to be helpful to Mr. McMillan, called it alimony so he could deduct the payment for income-tax purposes. Of course, if the payments were a part of the property settlement, the trial court was without jurisdiction to change the payments. Paul v. Paul, supra. In Paul v. Paul we said: `There is a widely recognized rule that the trial court does not have power to modify a decree insofar as it contains an agreed property settlement or if it is in the nature of a property settlement. For cases illustrating this rule, see Lay v. Lay, 162 Colo. 43, 425 P.2d 704, 707; Salomon v. Salomon, Fla., 196 So.2d 111, 112; Kerr v. Kerr, [309] Minn. [124], 243 N.W.2d 313, 314; see also, 24 Am.Jur.2d, Divorce and Separation, § 821, p. 933; 27B C.J.S. Divorce § 300(4), p. 385. These cases do not recognize any exception based upon the changed financial condition of the parties. `We have most persuasive Wyoming authority for the disposal hereof. In Moore v. Moore, 33 Wyo. 230, 237 P. 235, this court earlier recognized that under § 5006, C.S. 1920, a precursor of § 20-2-116, W.S. 1977, that if payments were to be made in lieu of a division of the property, a decree should not be modified. In Strahan v. Strahan, Wyo., 400 P.2d 542, 545-546, this court made the following observation: `To say that the court has a continuing jurisdiction and a responsibility to revise its provisions for the custody of children, according to their best interest and welfare, is not to say the court retains the same kind of continuing jurisdiction with respect to the civil rights of the parents, as between each other. `The final answer rests in Salmeri v. Salmeri, Wyo., 554 P.2d 1244, 1248-49, when this court said: `   We cannot interpret our statute authorizing the court to alter a decree for alimony or allowance for children as permitting it to interfere with or modify what has become a money judgment. Just because the final judgment for a fixed sum of money grows out of a divorce action does not continue the power of the court granting the divorce    to extend the time for payment thereof or otherwise modify the same. When the final judgment is entered the discretionary powers of the courts are exhausted.' 631 P.2d at 1064-1065, quoting from Pavlica v. Pavlica, Wyo., 587 P.2d 639, 640-641 (1978). Since the issue is for us to decide, we must look at what the payment provision is in law  not what the judge called it. The above-quoted segment of the decree calls for the payment of a sum certain  $800 a month for 10 years  and fixes the obligation as a lien upon real property in order to secure the payment even after death of the parties. These are the characteristics of a property settlement, and we hold that this is what it was. We said in Warren v. Warren, Wyo., 361 P.2d 525, 527 (1961): Alimony granted as support and maintenance terminates upon the death of either of the parties. [Citations.] This is not true, however, of payments which are themselves an integral part of the adjustment of property rights. It is clear to us that the payments contemplated by the trial court's decree of divorce were in fact a part of the adjustment of the property rights of the parties, since the sum is certain and payments do not terminate upon the death of either of the parties if the full ten years of payment at the rate of $800 per month have not been fully discharged. In Lonabaugh v. Lonabaugh, supra, this court distinguished between a property-settlement provision with respect to which the trial court does not have subsequent authority to modify, and an alimony provision over which modification authority is retained. We observed that a distinguishing characteristic is indicated where the payment is enforceable even though the wife survives the husband. It is to be noted that this court was concerned with the substance of the decree in Lonabaugh, rather than its wording. The decree referred to the payments to the wife as a part of the property settlement, but the attendant provisions were possessed of the characteristics of alimony in that payments were to cease upon remarriage, and so the trial court treated the provision as alimony. Here, the reverse is true. The trial court called the payment alimony for the tax convenience of the husband, but the fact that the sum which must be paid can be computed with certainty and is required to be paid even after death of either of the parties leaves no room for doubt but that the provision was in fact a part of the property settlement. We have held, in a case which is controlling here, that, where a divorce decree ordered the husband to pay the former wife $75 per month for a period of ten years, it was immaterial whether the payment was classified as property settlement or alimony since the decree provided for a sum certain  a characteristic of property settlement, and inconsistent with alimony. Neagle v. Neagle, Wyo., 481 P.2d 661 (1971). Affirmed.