Court Opinion

ID: 9741377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:54:27.344426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:23.737922
License: Public Domain

Brown, J.
(concurring). I am fully in accord with the well-reasoned opinion of the majority. However, it seems to me that a few additional observations are warranted. First, better draftsmanship would most likely have obviated the problem (but not the litigation if prior experience is any guide). Second, I am amazed that an orthopedic surgeon affiliated with a private hospital in Massachusetts was only earning $90,000 annually.1 And lastly, I think it was patently unfair to the spouse for a healthy, productive medical specialist to retire abruptly without forewarning his former spouse, particularly, where, as here, the percentage income factor on which her alimony is based, is reduced to zero.
If the husband knew at the time he entered into the agreement that he would retire prematurely and, thus, have no earned income at the time the alimony provision in issue would come into effect, one could easily infer that it was deceitful in those circumstances for him not to have indicated that knowledge to his wife. Had she known, given the hus*112band’s substantial means at the time, she obviously would have sought a different financial settlement. Although the majority is reluctant to assume such deceit on the part of the husband, it seems to me that when the husband’s conduct is viewed in its totality an adequate basis appears for the wife’s avoiding the agreement.
The “games” spouses play in highly emotional, and ofttimes irrational, divorce situations never cease to amaze. See, e.g., Kennedy v. Kennedy, 10 Mass. App. Ct. 113 (1980), where, unlike here, there were four incarnations. However, even if the parties are not prepared to play by the rules, the divorce bar must step up and say (and mean it) that “we won’t play anymore,” which not only is ethical and sound professionalism,2 but enlightened self-interest, given the recent decision of Avery v. Steele, 414 Mass. 450, 457 (1993).

The mean income for surgeons in 1983 was $144,000, and that figure increased to over $236,000 in 1990. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States 120, No. 176, Medical Practice Characteristics, by Selected Speciality: 1983-1990 (113th ed. 1993).

See in this regard Standards of Conduct and accompanying comments set out in American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Bounds of Advocacy (1991). See also Kindregan & Inker, Family Law and Practice § 11.1 (Supp. 1994).