Court Opinion

ID: 9660996
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:25:48.373847+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:23.699129
License: Public Domain

TEIGEN, Chief Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur. It appears to me the parties and the trial judge to whom the main action was tried have all treated the matter pertaining to alimony and support money as being ordered by the court and not as a private contract. Both of the parties in proceedings subsequent to the decree treat it as being made under the court’s statutory power to provide support incident to the marriage relationship. The plaintiff on two occasions attempted to enforce the provision by contempt proceedings and the defendant sought a court reduction of the amount. The construction that the parties themselves place upon a contract may be resorted to in determining their intention. Bailey v. Bailey, 53 N.D. 887, 207 N.W. 987. However, we need not consider the post decree acts of the parties in this case to determine their intention.
The intent of the parties in making the agreement is set forth in the prefatory paragraph of the agreement. It states the “parties * * * desire to enter upon a firm, final, and complete settlement of all the property now owned by them, or to be hereafter acquired and to arrange for the payment of alimony and support money and to make other arrangements with respect to their respective interests, * * * ” [Emphasis added.] The above is a compound sentence. The word “and” is a conjunction used to connect the separate clauses which relate back to the subject, “parties.”
Paragraph one of the agreement specifically provides that the defendant shall pay to the plaintiff “alimony and support money” in the amount specified as long as both shall live or until the remarriage of the plaintiff.
The agreement, in separate paragraphs, provides that the plaintiff shall have custody of the minor child of the parties with visitation privileges allowed the defendant and that the defendant shall pay the entire cost of the child’s education, including the full cost of maintenance during his minority.
Finally, the agreement provides that certain property described therein shall be set over to the plaintiff as her absolute and separate property and each party renounces any claim or interest in the property of the other, present or future. Thus the agreement incorporates three separate subjects.
The decree of divorce also treats these matters as being separate. In paragraph two, it “approved” the “property settlement.” The provision of the decree as to the custody, education, and maintenance of the minor child of the parties and the provision for the payment of alimony and support money to the plaintiff appear in two separate paragraphs. These two paragraphs are, in form, orders of the court and make no reference to the property settlement agreement although the provisions of the orders are the same as that pro*116vided in the agreement. The court, in its findings of fact, found that by the “property settlement agreement” (the title given the instrument by the parties) “the parties hereto provided for the payment of alimony, support money, custody of their minor child .and made other mutual dispositions of their property, * * * ” and that “the same is a fair and reasonable agreement” and “provides adequately for the future interests and welfare of the said Plaintiff.” The trial court which tried the divorce action obviously construed the “property settlement agreement” .as grammatically separated, as being nonintegrated in character, and as not determining all marital rights but expressing an intent separately as to the property, the minor child, and the alimony and support money for the plaintiff. The trial court then accepted the property settlement agreement of the parties as a private contract which it “approved” as to the property settlement but construed it as being advisory as to the child and the' alimony and support moneys for the plaintiff. It accepted the recommendation which it found was “fair and reasonable” and “provides adequately for the future interests and welfare of said plaintiff,” and made its order accordingly.
Thus the provisions of the property settlement agreement relative to the custody of the child and alimony and support money for the plaintiff were merged in the decree and lost their contractual nature. The property settlement agreement was sever-able and, pursuant to the interpretation placed upon it by the trial court and the parties, took on a dual character. It is a private contract as to the property settlement. It is advisory insofar as it provides for the payment of alimony and support money to the plaintiff. The decree is final. The provision of the decree covering the alimony and support money for the plaintiff is an award of the court, which the court may modify and enforce in appropriate proceedings.