Opinion ID: 2711556
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: enforcement of parents’ settlement

Text: AGREEMENTS The second set of statutes relevant to the issue before us are those that permit the enforcement of parents’ settlement agreements. In 2001, the legislature enacted ORS 107.104, which announces a policy of encouraging settlement agreements in suits for martial annulment, dissolution, or separation and provides for the enforcement of settlement terms. ORS 107.104 provides: “(1) It is the policy of this state: “(a) To encourage the settlement of suits for marital annulment, dissolution or separation; and “(b) For courts to enforce the terms of settlements described in subsection (2) of this section to the fullest extent possible, except when to do so would violate the law or would clearly contravene public policy.” That statute further provides that a court may enforce settlement terms using contractual remedies as well as any other remedies available to enforce a judgment, including but not limited to contempt.14 ORS 107.104(2).15 ORS 107.135(15)(a) is analogous: It provides for the enforcement of settlement agreements in modification proceedings and authorizes the use of contractual and other remedies, except when enforcement would violate the law or contravene public policy.16 14 In permitting parties to bring enforcement actions using contractual remedies as well as any other remedies available to enforce a judgment, ORS 107.104 and ORS 107.135(15) overturned Webber v. Olsen, 330 Or 189, 998 P2d 666 (2000), in which the court had declined to enforce as a contract an agreement included in a stipulated judgment of dissolution. 15 ORS 107.104(2) provides: “In a suit for marital annulment, dissolution or separation, the court may enforce the terms set forth in a stipulated judgment signed by the parties, a judgment resulting from a settlement on the record or a judgment incorporating a marital settlement agreement: “(a) As contract terms using contract remedies; “(b) By imposing any remedy available to enforce a judgment, including but not limited to contempt; or “(c) By any combination of the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection.” 16 ORS 107.135(15) provides, in part: “(a) It is the policy of this state: Cite as 353 Or 446 (2013) 457 Both statutes are consistent with this court’s decision in McDonnal and McDonnal, 293 Or 772, 778, 652 P2d 1247 (1982). In that case, the court observed that, in enacting statutes permitting dissolution of marriage without demonstration of fault, the legislature had sought in part to avoid unnecessary litigation and use of judicial resources and to encourage parties to settle their disputes more amicably. Id. at 778. Those objectives, the court explained, “are most effectively advanced when proposed property and support agreements are accepted by the court and incorporated into the dissolution decree.”17 Id. at 779. Furthermore, the court suggested, marital agreements should be enforced for many of the same reasons that courts enforce private contracts generally: “It is axiomatic that public policy requires that persons of full age and competent understanding shall have the utmost liberty of contracting, and that their contracts, when entered into freely and voluntarily, shall be held sacred and shall be enforced by courts of justice; and it is only when some other overpowering rule of public policy intervenes, rendering such agreements unfair or illegal, that they will not be enforced.” Id. at 779 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Where an agreement has been incorporated into a decree, “(A) To encourage the settlement of cases brought under this section; and “(B) For courts to enforce the terms of settlements described in paragraph (b) of this subsection to the fullest extent possible, except when to do so would violate the law or would clearly contravene public policy. “(b) In a proceeding under subsection (1) of this section, the court may enforce the terms set forth in a stipulated order or judgment signed by the parties, an order or judgment resulting from a settlement on the record or an order or judgment incorporating a settlement agreement: “(A) As contract terms using contract remedies; “(B) By imposing any remedy available to enforce an order or judgment, including but not limited to contempt; or “(C) By any combination of the provisions of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this paragraph.” 17 The passage of no-fault divorce laws and the increased respect for private agreements generally was part of a growing national recognition that people should have greater autonomy in organizing their domestic relationships. See Jana B. Singer, The Privatization of Family Law, 1992 Wis L Rev 1443, 1509 (documenting the shift from marriage-as-status to marriage-as-contract and the rise of private decision making in family law, and suggesting that these shifts were connected to changing notions of individual privacy and decisional autonomy). 458 Matar and Harake the agreement itself is a measure of the equities between the parties, and where parties have foregone their opportunity to litigate and have chosen instead to enter into an agreement, “their reliance on [that] agreement can be presumed.” Id. at 779. With those considerations in mind, “[t]he parties’ own resolution of their dispute should be accorded great weight,” and the court has a “responsibility to discover and give effect to the intent of the parties as reflected in the incorporated settlement agreement.” Id. As a result, the court concluded that martial dissolution agreements, “[o]nce approved by the court and incorporated into the decree[,]   are to be