Court Opinion

ID: 9709830
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:55:40.757353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:51.890181
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting). In part one of its opinion, the court has, in my view, completely ignored the intent of the parties — as expressed in their separation agreement, and elevated form over substance to sustain its holding. In doing so, the court has irredeemably overruled Bell without forthrightly admitting it. I dissent.
I agree with the premise that a court is to follow G. L. c. 208, § 34 (1984 ed.), in awarding alimony. I also agree that a judge may not order alimony terminated because of the cohabitation of a former spouse with a member of the opposite sex, without more. Ante at 625. However, neither issue controls this case. Here, two adults freely agreed that the husband’s support obligations would be altered if his former wife cohabited with the same unrelated man with whom she was having a romantic relationship for more than two consecutive months. This condition occurred and the judge so found. Now, merely because a provision of the separation agreement was, at the request of the parties, merged into the judgment of divorce, the court erroneously holds that the provision is an unenforceable order of the court.
I am unpersuaded by the court’s attempt to distinguish Bell, The attempt fails. The concurring opinion makes no improvement. The similarities between this case and Bell are too striking to be ignored. In Bell v. Bell, 393 Mass. 20 (1984), the disputed cohabitation clause provided for the termination of alimony upon the wife’s living together with a member of the opposite sex “ ‘so as to give the outward appearance of marriage. ’ ” Id, at 21. The clause at issue in Bell was not conditioned on the wife’s financial independence. Like Bell, the cohabitation clause in this case became effective upon the wife’s living in concubinage with a member of the opposite sex; nor was the clause in this case conditioned on the wife’s financial independence.
*631In Bell, the probate judge made specific findings and reported that the wife was in fact cohabiting with “J.R.” The judge dismissed the complaint for contempt, thereby allowing enforcement of the agreement. As in Bell, the judge in this case made specific findings and reported that the wife was cohabiting with L.W. for a sufficient period of time to warrant enforcement of the agreement. In Bell, the parties incorporated the separation agreement into their divorce decree, thereby altering it from an ordinary contract to “a judicially sanctioned contract setting forth the allocation between former spouses of rights, responsibilities, and resources.” Bell v. Bell, supra at 26 (Abrams, J., dissenting). Under the court’s reasoning today, a probate judge would be permitted to enforce a cohabitation provision in a separation agreement that survived a judgment of divorce, as in Bell, but would be precluded from enforcing the same agreement made by the same two parties merely because the agreement merged into the judgment at the request of the parties. This result is plainly wrong. To the extent that a separation agreement was incorporated in the judgment of divorce in both cases, there is not a scintilla of material difference between this case and Bell.
Finally, the court ante at 624 n.8, suggests that in Bell the court affirmed the dismissal of a complaint for contempt brought by the former wife “on the ground that, under the terms of an independent, surviving separation agreement, Bell v. Bell, 16 Mass. App. Ct. 188, 190 (1983), she had 'liv[ed] together with a member of the opposite sex, so as to give the outward appearance of marriage.’ ” (emphasis supplied). It is worthy of note that the court in the instant case had to cite the opinion .of the Appeals Court, which we reversed, in order to supply the phrase “under the terms of an independent, surviving separation agreement.” The clear implication from the juxtaposition of the phrase “under the terms of an independent, surviving separation agreement” is that of cause and effect — that the complaint was dismissed because the agreement was independent and surviving. There is not the slightest suggestion in this court’s opinion in Bell that the complaint was dismissed for this reason. In fact, the reader will search this court’s *632opinion in Bell in vain for any discussion or even mention of an “independent, surviving agreement.” These terms (“independent” and “surviving”) don’t come into play until one spouse seeks to enforce the separation agreement outside the Probate Court, as for example, in a separate contract action. The court recently addressed this problem in Ratchford v. Ratchford, ante 114, 116 (1986). In short, reliance on Bell for the discussion in n. 8 about a surviving and independent contract is wholly misplaced.
A word in response to the concurring opinion is in order because it contains language which attempts to distinguish Bell but fails. This concurring opinion says that “under the terms of the agreement between the parties, the provision as to cohabitation did not survive the judgment of divorce.” Is the opinion suggesting that the “merging” of the agreement in the judgment which the agreement calls for in art. V. 3 means that it ceases to be operative as a judgment? If so, it clearly is wrong. The cohabitation provision in the judgment in this case is as much entitled to enforcement as the cohabitation provision in the Bell judgment. It may be argued that, in Bell, the parties agreed that their agreement, incorporated into the judgment, remained alive, independent of the judgment. However, this argument is specious because the holding in Bell did not depend on the survival of the agreement. Bell was decided exclusively on the judgment, not on the agreement. The judgment controlled in Bell precisely as it controls in this case. In a word, there simply is no material difference between Bell and this case. Therefore, I dissent.