Court Opinion

ID: 9933057
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:41:32.734883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:05:26.457684
License: Public Domain

Once incorporated into a final judgment of divorce, the husband and wife's settlement agreement loses its character as an independent settlement agreement and becomes part of the judgment. Ex parteCarstens, 728 So.2d 128, 134 (Ala. 1998). With respect to its own judgment of divorce, a trial court has the discretion to make prospective modifications of support obligations when there has been a material change in circumstances that is substantial and continuing. Wells v.Wells, 648 So.2d 617, 619 (Ala.Civ.App. 1994); State ex rel. Pritchettv. Pritchett, 771 So.2d 1048, 1051 (Ala.Civ.App. 2000). That does not appear to have been what occurred in this case; rather, the trial court made it clear that it *Page 848 
was "clarifying" terms of the parties' settlement agreement that it previously had concluded were unambiguous. For this reason, and also based on the facts of this case, I concur.