Andrulonis v. Andrulonis

• Decision Date: 09 July 2010
• Docket Number: 2008.,No. 2431 Sept.Term,2431 Sept.Term
• Citation: 193 Md.App. 601,998 A.2d 898
• Parties: Joseph F. ANDRULONISv.Mary I. ANDRULONIS.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

193 Md.App. 601

998 A.2d 898

Joseph F. ANDRULONISv.Mary I. ANDRULONIS.

No. 2431 Sept.Term, 2008.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

May 5, 2010.

Reconsideration Denied July 9, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William E. Seekford, Perry Hall, MD, for Appellant.

Judith L. Walker, Takoma Park, MD, for Appellee.

Panel: HOLLANDER, ZARNOCH and WRIGHT, JJ.

WRIGHT, Judge.

On December 4, 1995, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County granted appellee, Mary I. Andrulonis (“Wife”), an absolute divorce from appellant, Joseph F. Andrulonis (“Husband”). As part of the judgment, Husband was ordered to pay alimony in accordance with the parties' separation agreement, granting “Wife permanent alimony in the amount of four thousand dollars ($4,000.00) per month ... until [Husband] terminates his employment and begins to receive termination, retirement or disability benefits....” In addition, “[e]ach party waive[d] his or her right to have any court assume jurisdiction for the purpose of modifying this provision.”

On July 27, 1998, Husband filed a complaint (“1998 Complaint”) for modification and/or termination of spousal support provisions, pursuant to Wife's remarriage. Wife filed a motion to dismiss Husband's 1998 Complaint, which the court granted on December 3, 1998. Husband subsequently appealed to this Court, but was unsuccessful, as we held that the circuit court correctly “concluded that the alimony provision contained in the parties' divorce decree is not modifiable.” Andrulonis v. (Andrulonis) Reilly (“ Andrulonis I”), No. 5526, Sept. Term, 1998, slip op. at 3, 128 Md.App. 703, 128 Md.App. 711 (Ct. of Spec.App. Sept. 20, 1999). Thereafter, on July 30, 1999, the circuit court issued an immediate earnings withholding order directing Husband to pay alimony by way of a wage lien.

On May 6, 2008, Husband filed another complaint (“2008 Complaint”), wherein he asked the court to strike and/or withdraw its immediate earnings withholding order and sought judgment against Wife “for three (3) years of wrongful and unlawful taking of monies thereunder.” Once again, Wife filed a motion to dismiss. A hearing was held on November 14, 2008, after which the court granted Wife's motion. This appeal followed.

The single issue before this Court is whether the circuit court erred in dismissing Husband's 2008 Complaint.¹ For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the trial court's judgment and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Facts and Procedural History

The parties were married on July 18, 1959, and separated thirty-two years later, on or about November 2, 1991. On August 23, 1995, they executed a separation and property settlement agreement (“Agreement”), wherein Husband agreed, under Paragraph II, to:

pay Wife permanent alimony in the amount of four thousand dollars ($4,000.00) per month, to commence upon the date of the signing of this Agreement. Husband agrees to pay Wife alimony until he terminates his employment and begins to receive termination, retirement or disability benefits, at which time Wife shall receive a fifty percent (50%) share of the total amount of Husband's Termination Payments, Extended Termination Payments, Temporary Disability Payments, or other type of post-employment wages, income, benefits or payments....

* * *

Each party waives his or her right to have any court assume jurisdiction for the purpose of modifying this provision of this Agreement.

In addition, Paragraph VIII of the Agreement stated that, “[i]n express exchange for the consideration provided Wife in §§ II and III.A of this Agreement, Wife waives any and all right, title and interest in ‘The 702 Lounge.’ ” Paragraph XII provided that “[t]he provisions concerning alimony and health insurance coverage shall be merged in any decree of absolute divorce obtained by either party.”

On December 4, 1995, the circuit court issued a judgment of absolute divorce, which “ORDERED that Joseph F. Andrulonis pay alimony unto Mary I. Andrulonis in accordance with [the aforementioned] Paragraph II of the Agreement between the parties, not subject to Court modification.” No exceptions were filed and neither party appealed the final divorce judgment. Furthermore, no modifications were made to the parties' Agreement.

On May 9, 1998, Wife remarried. On July 27, 1998, Husband filed the 1998 Complaint, seeking “modification and/or termination of spousal support provisions in [the] divorce decree.” According to Husband, the divorce court “erred when it su[ ]a sponte improperly ordered in the decree that the provisions of spousal support be ‘not subject to Court modification.’ ” In addition, Husband “alleged that the parties had agreed that they would not remarry, and that the parties' financial circumstances had altered considerably.” Andrulonis I, supra, slip op. at 5. Thus, Husband asked the court, pursuant to Maryland Code (1984), Family Law Article (“F.L.”), “Sect. 8-101; Sect. 8-103(b) and (c); ^[2] Sect. 8-105(b); Sect. 11-101; Sect 11-106; Sect. 11-107; and Sect. 11-108,^[3] to modify the amount of and/or to terminate further payment of Spousal support by [Husband] to [Wife] ordered in the Divorce Decree dated November 30, 1995.” Wife filed a motion to dismiss, which the court granted. Subsequently the circuit court dismissed Husband's 1998 Complaint with prejudice.

Husband appealed to this Court on December 17, 1998. In affirming the circuit court's judgment, we stated:

[Husband] asserts that the trial court should have terminated or modified the alimony provision, despite the decree's stipulation that it is “not subject to Court modification.” While appellant correctly states that, because the alimony provision in the Agreement was merged into the divorce decree, that portion of the Agreement has been extinguished, [Husband] is incorrect to urge that such merger necessarily permits the lower court to modify the alimony agreement. Rather, merger and incorporation simply determine the vehicle by which the provision may be enforced. When one provision of a legal document is incorporated into another, the former “shall be taken as part of the document in which the declaration is made as much as if it were set out at length therein.” Black's Law Dictionary 391 (5th ed.). By contrast, when a provision of a legal document is merged into another, the former is extinguished by its “absorption into” the latter, and the merged document “ceases to have an independent existence.” Id. at 511.

* * *

In the case sub judice, the alimony provision of the Agreement was merged into the divorce decree, thereby substituting the parties' rights regarding alimony in the Agreement for those in the divorce decree. As a result, the only legal document by which the alimony provision may be enforced is the divorce decree. The decree adopts in full, however, the Agreement's provision concerning alimony. Ergo, the substance of the alimony arrangement between the parties remains unchanged.

As a general rule, courts have the discretion to modify an alimony provision set forth in a settlement agreement. See F.L. § 8-105(b).... The court's authority to modify an alimony agreement is limited, however, by F.L. § 8-103(c)....

In the case at hand, the third paragraph within the alimony provision of the Agreement provides that “[e]ach party waives his or her right to have any court assume jurisdiction for the purpose of modifying this provision of this Agreement.” The statement is a valid bar to modification under F.L. § 8-103(c)(2) because it makes clear that the modification prohibition applies to the alimony section of the Agreement. See [Shapiro v.] Shapiro, 346 Md. [648,] 662-63, 697 A.2d 1342 [(1997)]. Consequently, the judge who drafted the parties' divorce decree was correct to include the alimony provision, without modification, in the divorce decree.

Likewise, the clause immediately following the alimony provision in the divorce decree, providing that alimony is “not subject to Court modification,” is also a valid prohibition on the modification of the arrangement....

[Husband] ... insist[s] that equitable considerations should permit modification of the amount of alimony that he is presently paying....

Pursuant to the alimony language adopted in the divorce decree, [Husband] must pay [Wife] alimony in the amount of $4,000 per month until he terminates his employment. After terminating his employment, [Husband] will be obligated to pay [Wife] fifty percent of his post-employment income. Nothing in the alimony provision provides that the amount of alimony shall be modified under other circumstances. In addition, no other portion of the Agreement provides that modification is permitted if the parties remarry or if their financial circumstances change. Consistent with the Agreement, the divorce decree does not provide for modification of alimony, whether for equitable reasons or otherwise.

Andrulonis I, supra, slip op. at 9-14. On July 30, 1999, the court issued an immediate earnings withholding order directing Husband to pay alimony by way of a wage lien.

Husband petitioned the Court of Appeals for certiorari. On December 23, 1999, the Court of Appeals denied Husband's petition, stating that “there has been no showing that review by certiorari is desirable and in the public interest.”

On February 21, 2003, the Court of Appeals decided Moore v. Jacobsen, 373 Md. 185, 817 A.2d 212 (2003), and held that, “unless an agreement states explicitly that alimony survives a party's remarriage, alimony terminates on the marriage of the recipient spouse.” Id. at 187, 817 A.2d 212. According to the Jacobsen Court, “the provision in the parties' separation agreement obligating the husband to pay alimony to the wife terminated upon the wife's remarriage, despite the fact that the agreement provided that alimony was ‘non-modifiable’ by a court and payable for a term of seven years, but did not make any express reference to [F.L.] § 11-108 or the effect of...