Opinion ID: 1896603
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Enforcement Relief

Text: [¶ 11] The District Court concluded that it could not order the enforcement of paragraph fifteen of the divorce judgment because of the strong public policy favoring the finality of property distributions and nonmodifiable waivers of spousal support. Under this view, Lorraine's receipt of her share of the military retirement pay by any means other than from the federal government would constitute either a new award of spousal support or a modified distribution of property. We disagree with this conclusion. [¶ 12] A court may not, under the rubric of enforcement, modify the property to be distributed to each party as established in a divorce judgment. Wardwell v. Wardwell, 458 A.2d 750, 752 (Me.1983) (In the absence of statutory authorization to modify a judgment dividing marital property, the courts are without jurisdiction to do so.). Similarly, a court may not order a party to pay spousal support as a means to enforce a property distribution when the award of spousal support is expressly prohibited by the terms of the divorce judgment. A court may, however, enforce a property distribution by making adjustments to the mechanisms necessary for the distribution to occur. See, e.g., Metivier v. Metivier, 582 A.2d 971, 973 (Me.1990) (The court's inherent power to enforce a divorce judgment includes the power to transfer responsibility for the sale of a marital residence.). Such adjustments may be warranted when a distributive award is not self-effectuating, and implementation of the award has been frustrated by a party's act or failure to act. See, e.g., St. Hilaire v. St. Hilaire, 526 A.2d 28, 29 (Me.1987) (The court did not commit any error of law in [enforcing the judgment by] transferring responsibility for selling the home to the plaintiff.). [¶ 13] The strong public policy favoring the finality of property distributions and nonmodifiable waivers of spousal support is not furthered here by the denial of enforcement. David's election of disability pay in lieu of retirement pay usurped the allocation of property ordered in the judgment, and it promoted the exact instability that the policy favoring the finality of judgments seeks to avoid. Because an adjustment to the mechanism by which Lorraine receives her property award is warranted, the court may enforce the judgment by requiring David to pay directly to Lorraine the amounts she would have received but for his actions.