Opinion ID: 1228809
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Refinement of spousal support policy by the Court of Appeals

Text: An award of spousal support involves two determinations  the appropriate duration of support and the amount to be awarded. In its leading case on the principles governing the duration of spousal support, the Court of Appeals reviewed the statutory standards and its prior decisions and made the following general statement: While each case must be decided on its own facts and no formula can be stated, certain principles emerge from an examination of the above cases. The most significant factor usually is whether the wife is employable at an income not overly disproportionate from the standard of living she enjoyed during the marriage. The wife's employability includes consideration of her education, training, experience, age, health, capacity, whether she has custody of small children, etc. Length of the marriage is germane because the longer the marriage, the more likely it is that the wife has foregone employment experiences, the absence of which will make it more difficult for her to achieve employment and self-sufficiency. If the wife is employable at an income not overly disproportionate from the standard of living she enjoyed during marriage, then, generally speaking, if support is appropriate it should be for a limited period of, for example, one to three years. In such a situation, it is not the policy of the law to give the wife an annuity for life or, stated differently, a perpetual lien against her former husband's future income. Conversely, if the wife is not employable or only employable at a low income compared to her standard of living during marriage then, generally speaking, permanent support is appropriate. Kitson and Kitson, 17 Or. App. 648, 655-56, 523 P.2d 575, 578 rev. denied (1974). [4] In Kitson there were few assets besides the encumbered family home. The husband's taxable income was approximately $21,000. The wife was given custody of the parties' one minor child. She had not worked since the early days of the 28-year marriage, and had no employment skills. Under those circumstances, the Court of Appeals held that spousal support should not be terminated after three years, as the trial court's decree had provided, but should continue until death or remarriage of the wife. The passage quoted from Kitson focuses on the wife's employability. Under the facts of that case the wife had no source of income other than her own earnings. A more generalized statement of the principle announced there would be: the most significant factor is usually whether the wife's property and potential income, including what she can earn or can become capable of earning, will provide her with a standard of living which is not overly disproportionate to the one she enjoyed during the marriage. Permanent [5] awards of spousal support were ordered or approved in a number of other cases involving similar factual patterns and on similar reasoning. [6] In some of these cases the wife was not entirely without employment skills, although in all of them there was a significant discrepancy between the wife's probable future income and an income which would provide the standard of living she had enjoyed during the marriage. There are some cases in which the Court of Appeals refused to order permanent spousal support, in spite of such a discrepancy, and which we are unable to distinguish on principle. [7] We are not convinced, however, that the Court of Appeals is deciding these cases on an ad hoc basis. Rather, it appears that the court is making policy choices of general applicability and is attempting to apply general principles to the cases before it in a consistent manner. In addition to the general principle adopted in Kitson, we note that the Court of Appeals has stated and applied a number of general guidelines. The court has said, in the dissolution of a marriage of substantial duration, that it attempts in such cases to see that the parties separate on as equal a basis as possible. Lake and Lake, 22 Or. App. 195, 538 P.2d 97 (1975). It has noted, on the other hand, that where the parties are relatively young and their circumstances are modest, permanent support will not generally be awarded. In such cases, the purpose of the support award is to give the wife time for readjustment and to prepare herself for employment. Fulwiler and Fulwiler, 22 Or. App. 311, 538 P.2d 958 (1975). Special circumstances have been taken into account in a principled fashion. For example, the court has given consideration, in setting the amount and duration of spousal support, to the fact that the wife has made a direct contribution to the husband's education or to his professional or occupational success. Wilson and Wilson, 10 Or. App. 162, 499 P.2d 828 (1972). And where the wife suffers from health problems that reduce her earning capacity or increase the cost of her support, the court has rejected the argument that the burden of such continuing problems should be borne by society rather than by the former spouse. Gunderson and Gunderson, 26 Or. App. 115, 551 P.2d 1317 (1976) (alcoholism); Creighton and Creighton, 25 Or. App. 159, 548 P.2d 995 (1976) (mental illness); Kolling and Kolling, 18 Or. App. 200, 524 P.2d 573 (1974) (physical illness). The husband has argued, in the present case, that the Court of Appeals acted improperly in Kitson, and the cases which follow it, in comparing the wife's probable income with the standard of living she enjoyed during the marriage, and that the court has been attempting, in those cases, to provide the wife with that standard at the husband's expense and without proper consideration of his financial situation and other factors specified in the statute. These arguments are not well taken. We find no evidence in the Court of Appeals' opinions that it has required the husband to provide his former wife with support sufficient to enable her to maintain an unchanged standard of living. On the contrary, the court has observed that the same standard of living usually cannot be maintained. [8] The principle of Kitson that the most significant factor usually is whether the wife's income can provide a standard of living not overly disproportionate to that she enjoyed during the marriage is addressed not to the amount of spousal support but to its duration. In Maley and Maley, 28 Or. App. 597, 600-601, 560 P.2d 309 (1977), reducing the amount of permanent spousal support, the court observed that the supporting spouse, where children are not involved, ought generally to be allowed to retain more than half of his net income. In fact, in reviewing the Court of Appeals' opinions, we have found only two cases in which child support and spousal support combined appear to exceed half of the husband's net income. [9] Most often, as nearly as we can determine from the figures in the reported cases, permanent spousal support operates to lessen, but not to eliminate, substantial financial inequality between the spouses, taking into account their needs and those of their dependents and their probable incomes from all sources.