Opinion ID: 1199185
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: THE NARROW EXCEPTION CARVED OUT IN NANTZ v. NANTZ [47] IS INAPPLICABLE HERE

Text: The constitutionally shielded concept of an accrued or vested right in an adjudicated obligation [48] was neither eroded nor intended to be abolished in Nantz. There, the court held the legislature can establish a condition for terminating support alimony payments and make that after-enacted condition apply to unaccrued portions of awards that mature after the new law has become effective. [49] The court anchored its conclusion in the modifiable and terminable nature of support alimony. Nantz, which carved out but a narrow exception to the general rule that after-enacted statutes do not affect the terms or validity of a judgment, rests on the rationale that a decreed support obligation payable in installments represents a series of judgments, each one of which is governed by the law in force at the time the installment falls due. [50] In sum, Nantz protects the accrued right to a support alimony installment only after it falls due. [51] Its teaching does not apply here.