Court Opinion

ID: 9656396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:47:47.07619+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:32.203410
License: Public Domain

*122McCown, J.,
concurring in part, and in part dissenting.
I concur in that portion of the majority opinion which determines that a military retirement pension is not an asset to be divided by the court or considered as a part of the marital estate, but may be considered as a source of income for the payment of alimony.
I dissent from that portion of the opinion which approves a decree which requires the husband to pay “as permanent alimony the sum of $850 per month . . . until the death of the respondent or the petitioner, or until further order of the court,” and also provides that “alimony should not terminate automatically upon the remarriage of the petitioner, but that such remarriage may be considered as a change of circumstances to be considered by the court at some future date . . . .”
The majority opinion concedes that a permanent alimony award is contrary to the general rule in this state that allowance of alimony in the form of an annuity or requiring a husband to pay a fixed sum for an indefinite period of time is not favored. See Cole v. Cole, 208 Neb. 562, 304 N.W.2d 398 (1981).
Ordinarily the allowance of permanent alimony has been limited to cases in which the health of the recipient made such an allowance appropriate at the time of the dissolution of marriage. In the present case the recipient of alimony is 45 years old, at least normally healthy, and has been previously employed. Under such circumstances I see no justification for providing alimony of more than $10,000 per year for a longer period than 10 years at most.
The major problem with the decree in the present case, however, is that this court has now approved a provision that support alimony does not terminate automatically upon remarriage. Instead, the decree here provides that some future court may decide the effect of remarriage and at that time de*123termine whether or not alimony should be reduced, terminated, or continued.
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 42-365 (Cum. Supp. 1980) provides in part: “Except as otherwise agreed by the parties in writing or by order of the court, alimony orders shall terminate upon the death of either party or the remarriage of the recipient.” The legislative policy reflected in that statute is clear. Unless the parties agree or there are unusual or special circumstances which are to be determined by the trial court at the time of entry of the decree, an alimony award terminates upon the remarriage of the recipient.
I find no justifiable or logical reason in the case at bar why the permanent alimony should not terminate upon remarriage. If future courts must now engage in the judicial process of determining whether a particular remarriage does or does not require the termination or reduction of permanent alimony support payments from a former spouse, there will be no end to the problems which are created. The trial court at the time of the entry of a dissolution decree should specify that alimony payments for support will not terminate upon remarriage only if there are special circumstances requiring such a provision at the time of dissolution, but the trial court should not leave the termination decision to some future court. To defer the issue of determining the obligations of support and maintenance required by consecutive marriages replaces specificity with uncertainty and confusion and ignores the realities of modern marital support provisions. Alimony payments in this case should terminate on remarriage of the recipient.
Clinton, J., joins in this concurrence and dissent.