Court Opinion

ID: 9793784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:52:59.208417+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:53.247825
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Chief Justice
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. When a marriage is annulled, there is no marriage and never has been one. It has been void from the beginning, and the status of the plaintiff in this case is the same now as it was prior to her purported second marriage.
The provisions of Section 30-1-17.2, U.C. A.1953, set out in the main opinion, have no application whatsoever to this case. There was no property accumulated; no children born or to be born; and no genuine need arising from economic change of circumstances due to the annulled marriage. No order pursuant to the above cited statute was made or could have been made by the court which granted the annulment.
The main opinion puts the burden on the woman to show that she still needs alimony. I think the prior decree gives her the alimony until it is terminated by a lawful marriage or by an order based on a change of circumstances which the defendant has the burden of showing. Since he has not shown a material change of circumstances which would justify the elimination of alimony, he should not be relieved from the conditions imposed upon him by the original decree.
The trial court made the following findings of fact:
*13842. At the time of the entry of said Decree of (the original) Divorce, the monthly living expenses of the plaintiff and the minor children of the parties were $360 per month.
3. Within a year thereafter, plaintiff was required to purchase a house to make a home for herself and the minor children of the parties because the owner of the house in which they were living as tenants at the time of the divorce would not renew the lease due to the divorce.
4. Also within a year after the entry of the Decree of Divorce plaintiff obtained employment as a secretary with Granite School District where she has been employed since that time. It was contemplated at the time of the divorce that plaintiff would be required to seek employment.
5. Plaintiff’s current monthly expenses total $1,002.99. Not included in said amount are the cost of a new automobile, or payments thereon, or the cost of a new roof, or payments thereon, both of which expenses plaintiff will incur in the immediate future.
6. Plaintiff’s average net spendable monthly income at the present time and in the foreseeable future from her employment is $561.18, not including an anticipated refund of federal income taxes withheld of about $600.
7. There has been a substantial and material change in the circumstances of the plaintiff and the minor children of the parties since the entry of the Decree of Divorce.
8. The defendant’s disposable net income is adequate for the payment of such increases of alimony and support money as are reasonable in view of the change in the needs of the plaintiff and the minor children of the parties, as determined by that certain Order made and entered herein on January 8, 1976.
Even if the main opinion should be considered to be the law of this state, the findings of the trial court would require an increase in alimony, not the elimination of it, if equity is applied to the findings made.
I would reverse the trial court as to the elimination of alimony and would otherwise affirm the judgment. I would award costs to the appellant.