Edwards v. Edwards

Opinion

ASHBY, J.

Husband appeals from an order denying his motion to terminate spousal support for Wife. The parties were divorced in 1955

after a marriage of between eight and nine years. At the time of the interlocutory judgment of divorce Husband was ordered to pay Wife $42 per week spousal support, and child support of $12.50 per week for each

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of the three children. Spousal and child support were modified in 1967. Spousal support was reduced to $120 per month. Child support for one son was terminated; support for the other son was reduced to $60 per month; and support for the youngest child, a daughter, was increased to $120 per month. The record does not include a reporter’s transcript of the 1967 proceedings, but the alleged changes of circumstance were that Wife had become employed, one son had become employed and the other was attending college with Husband’s support. Husband remarried after the divorce and had a child by the new marriage.

In March 1974 Husband filed the instant petition to terminate spousal support. The evidence indicates that the two sons are now 26 and 24, married and self-supporting. Husband supported one of them through college and the other through one year of college. The daughter is 21 and attends junior college. Husband pays her $216 a month plus clothing, tuition and books. Wife is 46 years old, and works as a sales clerk in a jewelry store where she earns $602 per month gross, and $460 per month net. Her needs are $715 per month. She has worked, mostly part time, for seven to eight years except when she was ill. For eight months in 1972 she did not work and collected disability for osteoarthritis. For eight months in 1973 she did not work and collected disability for high blood pressure. She is still under a doctor’s care for arthritis and high blood pressure.

Husband owns his own business and sets his own salary at $36,000 per year. In his declaration Husband stated: “I have been paying the spousal support for eighteen (18) years after a marriage of about half of that length. . . . [If] The petitioner is employed and has been employed for a long time. I feel that I have more than paid my dues and wish that support to the petitioner be terminated. This request is not based upon my inability to pay but upon the petitioner’s lack of need and the length of time.” The trial court denied Husband’s request.