Massachusetts Divorce Law...

Massachusetts Law - When Might Alimony Be Modified?

The parties may themselves decide whether or not the court will have the authority to modify the alimony and child support awards after they are entered.

The legal terms are "incorporating the agreement into the judgment," or "merging the agreement into the judgment," which allows the judge to modify the agreement later, upon a showing of a material change in circumstances.

If the terms are not incorporated, the agreement is much harder to modify. If the terms are not incorporated, the agreement may only be modified in court if there are "countervailing equities," which usually means that the party seeking to keep the contract unchanged has not held up his or her end of the deal.

Cases:

Cournoyer (1996) 663 NE2d 863 (In deciding whether or not an agreement is merged into the court decree, the judge will try to discern what was the parties' intent at the time. In this case, the wording was so vague, containing language both of merger and non-merger, that it was impossible to tell the parties' intent. However, in this case the situation called for modification of the agreement whether or not it had been incorporated into the judgment. The wife had failed to make agreed-on child support payments for a daughter who was living with the husband, so she had failed to hold up her end of the agreement. Also, there were changes in circumstance, including custody of another daughter switching to the husband, and the wife's gaining employment. So the court felt free to modify the earlier judgment.)

Keller v. O'Brien (1995) 652 NE2d 589 (The husband was a bank executive earning $180,000 a year. The wife was earning $90 a week. The marriage had lasted 26 years. The wife remarried. The wife's new spouse earned $28,000 a year -- and the new husband paid $7,800 a year in support for children of the new husband's prior marriage. Neither the separation agreement nor the original court decree said whether alimony would terminate upon remarriage. The court said that the remarriage would create a situation in which ordinarily the courts should agree to terminate the alimony. Only in rare and exceptional circumstances should a court allow the alimony to continue. For example, if the remarried spouse would become a public charge, then the former spouse could be compelled to continue paying alimony.)

Bush (1988) 523 NE2d 259 (In this case, the court did not adjust the alimony downward, as the husband had requested. The wife had purchased a home with another man. But this was not a material change in circumstances that called for an adjustment of alimony. Also, her weekly expenses had dropped from $727 a week to $230 a week. But this was simply the downward-adjusting of her standard of living to be within the existing alimony award. It, too, was not a material change of circumstances that called for a downward adjustment of alimony.)

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