Court Opinion

ID: 9848390
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:18:18.735347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:16.480847
License: Public Domain

Weltner, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
1. Varn v. Varn, 242 Ga. 309, 311 (248 SE2d 667) (1978) held: “[T]he right to modification will be waived by agreement of the parties only in very clear waiver language which refers to the right of modification.”
2. In this case, the parties agreed: “Both parties expressly waive any right they may have to modify the terms of this agreement under the laws of this state or any other state.”
In my opinion, that provision fits precisely the Varn requirement of “very clear waiver language, which refers to the right of modification.”
3. The argument to the contrary may be found in the sentence immediately following that quoted above, which is: “Specifically, plaintiff (wife) waives the right provided in Ga. Code Ann. § 30-220 et seq., to modify the provisions of this agreement relating to alimony at any time in the future.”
This sentence could be interpreted as nothing more than an identification of one of the several rights that both have waived, and hence it would not vitiate the broad mutual waiver that precedes it.
I am authorized to state that Chief Justice Marshall and Justice Smith join in this dissent.
*192Decided April 7, 1988
Reconsideration denied April 27, 1988.
Custer, Hill & Clark, Lawrence B. Custer, Douglas A. Hill, for appellant.
Daniel C. B. Levy, for appellee.