Opinion ID: 2749130
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Spousal Maintenance

Text: ¶ 28. Many of wife’s objections to the spousal-maintenance order and the evidence upon which it was based relate to the final divorce order. This Court affirmed that order on appeal, Barrup , No. 2010-018, 2010 WL 7799798, and the order has long been final. We will not revisit the trial court’s findings and conclusions in its final order and decree of divorce. ¶ 29. Many of wife’s arguments relate to husband’s failure to pay her the spousal maintenance required by the court’s order, and her motion to enforce. Husband has not cross-appealed the trial court’s order compelling him to pay spousal-maintenance arrearages, so we do not review the trial court’s order enforcing spousal maintenance. ¶ 30. Wife also objects to the trial court’s downward modification of husband’s spousal-maintenance obligation. We interpret her arguments as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the court’s modification order, and to the trial court’s exercise of discretion in connection with the modification motion. ¶ 31. In the event of “a real, substantial, and unanticipated change of circumstances,” a court may modify a spousal-maintenance order. 15 V.S.A. § 758. In modifying spousal maintenance, a court may apply the factors set forth in 15 V.S.A. § 752. “[T]he standard of review regarding a trial court’s finding of changed circumstances is a deferential one . . . . [W]e will not disturb the court’s determination unless its exercise of discretion was on grounds or for reasons clearly untenable, or the exercise of discretion was to a clearly unreasonable extent.” Meyer v. Meyer , 173 Vt. 195, 197, 789 A.2d 921, 923 (2001). Moreover, “[a] court has broad discretion in determining the amount and duration of a [spousal-] maintenance award, and we will set it aside only when there is no reasonable basis to support it.” Stickney v. Stickney , 170 Vt. 547, 548-49, 742 A.2d 1228, 1231 (1999) (mem.). ¶ 32. We conclude that the trial court’s order in this case was within its discretion. The trial court found that husband had suffered a substantial drop in income in 2009, significantly undermining his ability to pay wife $12,000 in annual spousal maintenance. The trial court further found that after a temporary rebound in his income in 2012, husband experienced another sustained drop in his income attributable to challenges facing the family business and the effective end of his other businesses. He was earning around $52,000 as opposed to the $78,000 contemplated in the final divorce decree. The trial court found that this income drop was real. Even though wife offered testimony and evidence to the contrary, there was evidence to support the trial court’s findings. Smith v. Wright , 2013 VT 68, ¶ 22, 194 Vt. 326, 79 A.3d 876 (“As a general matter, we will uphold factual findings on appeal if any credible evidence in the record supports them, leaving credibility determinations to the trier of fact.”) (alteration and quotation marks omitted). And these income drops were sufficient to support the trial court’s implicit finding of a real, substantial, and unanticipated change of circumstances. ¶ 33. Given the changed circumstances, the trial court’s modest reduction of spousal maintenance by $150 per month, from $1,000 per month to $850 per month, in response to husband’s income drop of over $2,000 per month, likewise did not exceed its discretion. Although wife believes husband is making more money than he acknowledges, the trial court credited husband’s evidence—to an extent—and concluded that the modest reduction in spousal maintenance was warranted. That conclusion was within the trial court’s discretion. Affirmed .