Court Opinion

ID: 9793785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:52:59.21065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:53.248912
License: Public Domain

HALL, Justice
(concurring in the dissent with comment):
The ruling today is contrary to that of this court in Kent v. Kent, supra, note 1 of main opinion. It was the holding there that even though a former wife contracted a void ab initio marriage, and after knowledge of its void nature, conceived a child and thereafter obtained an annulment, neither asking for nor obtaining alimony, her right to claim alimony from her former husband was not terminated. In reaching that conclusion the court did not consider the 1971 enactment of Section 30-1-17.2, U.C.A.1953 which is now relied upon as the authority for an award of alimony in annulment proceedings. It also appears that counsel in that case failed to urge its application, and had the court taken into consideration that new statutory enactment and recognized the general equity powers of the trial court it may very well have reached a contrary result.
The Legislature, having seen fit to provide for an award of “support and maintenance of the parties and children,” under a decree of annulment, has apparently provided a means whereby a prior spouse may be relieved of any further obligation of alimony. This is the modem view referred to by Professor Homer H. Clark, Jr., in his treatise on the Law of Domestic Relations, p. 458 (1968). The concept of allowing alimony in annulment matters rather than requiring the first spouse to resume the burden is fortified by the language in Cecil v. Cecil, supra footnote 2 of main opinion, where the court said
it would be inequitable for her to obtain the right of support from two sources.
A further review of the record reveals that the judgment of the trial court in Kent v. Kent, supra, was dated July 20, 1971, some two months after the effective date of said Section 30-1-17.2 which was on May *138513,1971. The main opinion, the trial judge, and the litigants here overlook the fact that the statute was in full force and effect when Kent v. Kent, supra, was before the court.
The fact that the plaintiff here failed to seek or obtain alimony at the time she obtained the annulment was specifically considered by the trial court as bearing upon the burden he deemed she must necessarily bear to show that special circumstances existed that warranted a reinstatement of alimony. Such is error for two reasons. First, Kent v. Kent, supra, holds that the right to claim alimony is not terminated by entering into a void marriage, and second, none of the specific conditions for an award of alimony in annulment proceedings were evident, i. e., the parties had not accumulated any property or acquired any obligations, there was no economic change of circumstances due to the marriage, nor were any children born or expected to be born. Plaintiff’s inability to qualify for support in the annulment proceedings places her squarely within the holding of Kent v. Kent, supra.