Court Opinion

ID: 9845388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:20:43.147613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:05.643652
License: Public Domain

RABINOWITZ, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
Accepting the court’s conclusion that remarriage of a former spouse constitutes a substantial change of circumstances which requires the termination of alimony, I am not persuaded that alimony payments in the case at bar should be terminated. The majority recognizes that the rule of automatic termination of alimony upon remarriage should not apply when the alimony is in fact intended to provide child support. In the case at bar it is not altogether clear that alimony was intended solely for Jen-ith’s benefit; what was termed “spousal support” may also have had a related child support function. Vonnie Voyles’s earlier requests for reduction in alimony payments were apparently denied because the superi- or court was of the view that Vonnie’s combined payments of $500 ($350 for child support and $150 for alimony) were needed for the minor child’s care. Given the fact that a portion of Jenith’s alimony may have actually had a child support function, I think it inappropriate to eliminate all alimony without this issue being first remanded to the superior court for resolution.1
My additional disagreement with the court’s opinion centers on the adoption of an automatic termination of alimony rule. Given that the principal purpose of alimony is to ensure that the economic needs of the dependent spouse are met, I favor adoption of a rule which will accord the dependent spouse an opportunity to rebut the prima facie case of substantial change in circumstances warranting termination of alimony which flows from the fact of remarriage. In my view, such a rule would provide a dependent spouse with support only in the exceptional circumstance where it would be unjust and unreasonable to terminate alimony.2

. Minimally, Jenith retains the option to move in superior court for increased child support.

. Adoption of the prima facie rule would not require rejection of either the multi-spousal support or certainty rationales which underlie the majority’s automatic termination rule. Under the prima facie rule alimony would survive remarriage only in those exceptional circumstances which demonstrate an ongoing and just need for the continuation of such payments.
Admittedly, my position in the case at bar is somewhat at variance with Estate of Kuhns v. Kuhns, 550 P.2d 816 (Alaska 1976). There this court held that the obligation to make alimony payments, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, does not survive the death of the obligor. My change of position is based upon the conclusion that it is preferable to adopt a rule which, in the exceptional circumstance, will permit the continuation of alimony.