Marriage of Werner CA1/4

Filed 3/28/25 Marriage of Werner CA1/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

In re the Marriage of WERNER.

JENNIFER WERNER, Respondent, A171598 v. (Lake County TORTSTEN WERNER, Super. Ct. No. FL217422) Appellant.

Torsten Werner challenges the trial court’s order modifying Jennifer Werner’s spousal support payments and terminating its jurisdiction over spousal support. We affirm. BACKGROUND The parties were married in 1994 and divorced after their children became adults. In 2023, the court entered a stipulated judgment of marital dissolution setting forth the final settlement of the parties’ rights and obligations, including an obligation for Jennifer1 to pay Torsten $2,000 in monthly spousal support for seven years. The parties’ agreement was put on

1 For clarity, we refer to the parties by their first names because they

share a last name.

1

the record in February 2023, and the stipulated judgment was entered on May 4, 2023. In June 2024, Jennifer filed a request for order to change and terminate spousal support based on the changed circumstance that she had retired, and her retirement income was significantly less than her prior income. The court conducted a bench trial on her request in August 2024, and Torsten requested a statement of decision at the end of trial. On August 19, 2024, the court issued its Findings and Order After Hearing. The court modified Jennifer’s spousal support obligation to $100 per month beginning on September 1, 2024, for 10 months. At the end of the 10 months, Jennifer would have no further spousal support obligation under Family Code2 section 4320, and the court’s jurisdiction over spousal support would terminate. The court declined to impute any earning capacity to Jennifer and issued Torsten a Gavron3 warning. In its statement of decision, the court at the outset found the parties had intended Jennifer’s $2,000 spousal support payment to supplant Jennifer’s payments of household expenses on the parties’ home, which had been awarded to Torsten as separate property. By the time of Jennifer’s modification request, Torsten had sold the home. The evidence at trial showed that Jennifer retired in June 2024 and her monthly retirement “take home” was almost equal to Torsten’s monthly “take home” from his disability payments. Jennifer made $26.30 more a month than Torsten, so the court ordered her to pay him $13.15 a month in spousal support. The court elected to terminate spousal support after two years and award Torsten roughly