Chaney v. Chaney

• Decision Date: 31 May 1985
• Citation: 493 A.2d 1382,343 Pa.Super. 77
• Parties: Leslie W. CHANEY, Appellant, v. Karen V. CHANEY, Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 1382

493 A.2d 1382

343 Pa.Super. 77

Leslie W. CHANEY, Appellant, v. Karen V. CHANEY, Appellee.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued March 18, 1985.

Filed May 31, 1985.

Robert J. Stock, Butler, for appellant.

Leo M. Stepanian, Butler, for appellee.

Before CIRILLO, HOFFMAN and ROSENWALD ^*, JJ.

CIRILLO, Judge:

Leslie W. Chaney appeals from the September 4, 1984 order of the Butler County Court of Common Pleas.

The parties were married on September 10, 1960, and separated on July 1, 1979; a divorce decree was granted on November 9, 1982. Appellant is employed by Armco Steel Corporation at an annual net salary of $30,000.00; Armco provides him with life insurance, various medical benefits, a pension plan, and paid holidays. In addition, Armco awarded appellant a $10,000.00 prize for a suggestion appellant made on improving company efficiency; this award was announced before the parties separated, but paid out afterwards.

By contrast, appellee was a homemaker from the birth of the parties' first child in 1962 until the separation. She is now employed as a practical nurse at a church home, at an annual net salary of $7,000.00; the home provides no fringe benefits. Appellee can work only part-time because of her affliction with multiple sclerosis; it is unlikely that she will be able to find more profitable, full-time employment. She also has custody of the parties' two minor children; two other children are now adults.

The master awarded alimony of $450.00 per month, and support of $150.00 per month for each of the two minor children. He stated that alimony would terminate upon appellee's death, remarriage or cohabitation with another man, or be altered upon a showing of changed circumstances, but did not specify that the award would terminate upon appellant's death. To the contrary, the master directed appellant to designate appellee as the beneficiary of appellant's group term life insurance policy from Armco, in order to provide some security for appellee in the event that appellant predecease her without her remarriage or cohabitation. The master then stated that this direction was not meant to eliminate the obligation on appellant's estate to pay alimony to appellee. The master awarded appellee two-thirds of the marital assets, and appellant one-third. He recommended that appellant pay four-fifths of appellee's counsel fees and two-thirds of the master's fees. Finally, the master distributed the $10,000.00 Armco prize, without adjustments for income taxes, and required appellant to pay appellee $1,000.00 for repairs to the marital home.

Appellant excepted to the master's report, challenging, in part, the duration of the alimony award, the disposition of the Armco life insurance policy, the division of the marital property, including the Armco prize, the award of fees, and the $1,000.00 assessment against appellant for home repairs. The court sustained only the exceptions which disputed the distribution of the Armco prize and the home repairs assessment. It eliminated the $1,000.00 payment for home repairs, stating that cancelling this payment would rectify the master's error in distributing the prize money without having made an adjustment for revenue charges.

Appellant now presents five questions ¹:

1) May a spouse or his estate be required to provide for the payment of alimony after the death of the obligated spouse, where there has been no prior agreement to pay such alimony?

2) May a court order retention of a spouse as the beneficiary of a term life insurance policy furnished by the insured spouse's employer and over which the insured spouse has no control?

3) Does a court abuse its discretion when it assesses approximately four-fifths of a spouse's counsel fees against the other spouse, where it also awards the first spouse approximately two-thirds of the marital property?

4) Does a court abuse its discretion when it assesses two-thirds of the master's fees against a spouse, where it also awards two-thirds of the marital assets to the other spouse?

5) Does a court abuse its discretion or err in law when it assesses $1,000.00 against a spouse for repairs to the marital home, incurred during the time the other spouse resided there after the separation, when during that separation the obligated spouse paid court-ordered support without default?

The court decides matters of alimony, equitable distribution and assessment of fees in its discretion; we do not disturb its decisions on these issues unless it plainly abused that discretion. Vajda v. Vajda, --- Pa.Super. ---, 487 A.2d 409 (1985); Pangallo v. Pangallo, 329 Pa.Super. 25, 477 A.2d 885 (1984); Hess v. Hess, 327 Pa.Super. 279, 475 A.2d 796 (1984); Eck v. Eck, 327 Pa.Super. 334, 475 A.2d 825 (1984); Kleinfelter v. Kleinfelter, 317 Pa.Super. 282, 463 A.2d 1196 (1983); Ruth v. Ruth, 316 Pa.Super. 282, 462 A.2d 1351 (1983); Remick v. Remick, 310 Pa.Super. 23, 456 A.2d 163 (1983).

The general rule is that an alimony obligation ceases with the obligated party's death, absent a contrary statute or agreement by the parties. See, e.g., Hilton v. McNitt, 49 Cal.2d 79, 315 P.2d 1 (1957); Plant v. Plant, 320 So.2d 455 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1975), cert. dis'd, 341 So.2d 292 (Fla.1976); Gordon v. Gordon, 335 So.2d 321 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1976); Simpson v. Simpson, 18 Md.App. 626, 308 A.2d 410 (1973); Flicker v. Chenitz, 55 N.J.Super. 273, 150 A.2d 688 (1959); Modell v. Modell, 23 N.J.Super. 60, 92 A.2d 505 (1952); Perry v. Perry, 84 App.Div.2d 612, 444 N.Y.S.2d 490 (1981); Ehrler v. Ehrler, 69 Misc.2d 234, 328 N.Y.S.2d 728 (Sup.Ct.1972); White v. White, 48 Ohio App.2d 72, 355 N.E.2d 816 (1975). But see Cross v. Cross, 5 Ill.2d 456, 125 N.E.2d 488 (1955) (the court has authority to extend alimony payments past the obliged spouse's death).

In Pennsylvania, the Divorce Law of 1929 ² allowed permanent alimony only in the case of an insane spouse; the court could order alimony for the support of such a spouse for the duration of his or her life. 23 P.S. § 45 (repealed). Permanent alimony was thus purely a creature of statute. Hooks v. Hooks, 123 Pa.Super. 507, 187 A. 245 (1936). Alimony pendente lite, under Section 46 of the 1929 Code, was similarly a statutory right, Meinel v. Meinel, 109 Pa.Super. 159, 167 A. 385 (1933), and was awarded in order to enable the dependent spouse to bring or to defend the divorce action, Young v. Young, 274 Pa.Super. 298, 418 A.2d 415 (1980). Alimony was also awarded under Section 47 of the 1929 Code in divorces "from bed and board," because such divorces were merely judicial separations and did not terminate the obligated spouse's duty of support. Commissioner v. Rankin, 270 F.2d 160 (3d Cir.1959); Commonwealth ex rel. Rubin v. Rubin, 230 Pa.Super. 591, 326 A.2d 578 (1974).

Except in the case of an insane spouse, the duty of support, hence the court's power to award alimony, ended under the 1929 Code with the entry of a valid decree of absolute divorce. Rankin, supra; In re Mathay's Estate, 463 Pa. 486, 345 A.2d 623 (1975); Stambaugh v. Stambaugh, 458 Pa. 147, 329 A.2d 483 (1974); Commonwealth ex rel. Platt v. Platt, 227 Pa.Super. 423, 323 A.2d 29 (1974); Commonwealth ex rel. Lorusso v. Lorusso, 189 Pa.Super. 403, 150 A.2d 370 (1959) (allocatur denied). A husband could agree to provide for payments to his former wife to continue past his death, but the law ensured that a former spouse receiving alimony could not normally have a greater right to support from the obligated spouse than if the parties had remained married and the obligated spouse died. Estate of Edwin A. Watrous, 95 Pa.Super. 11 (1928). Compare Commonwealth ex rel. Buehler v. Buehler, 288 Pa. Super. 303, 431 A.2d 1059 (1981) (wife may not use support action to secure a share of her husband's estate); Commonwealth ex rel. Simpson v. Simpson, 287 Pa.Super. 356, 430 A.2d 323 (1981) (same); Commonwealth ex rel. Roviello v. Roviello, 229 Pa.Super. 428, 323 A.2d 766 (1974) (same).

In 1980, the Pennsylvania Legislature enacted our present, reformed Divorce Code. ³ The 1980 Code was intended in part to modernize Pennsylvania's domestic relations law and to harmonize it with the law of other states. See generally Gold-Bikin and Rounick, "The New Pennsylvania Divorce Code," 25 Vill.L.Rev. 617 (1980); Comment, "Divorce Reform: Pennsylvania Attempts To Break With the Past," 18 Duq.L.Rev. 877 (1980). Three of the 1980 Code's policies, stated in Section 102, are to:

(a) ...

....

(3) Give primary consideration to the welfare of the family rather than the vindication of private rights or the punishment of marital wrongs.

(4) Mitigate the harm to the spouses and their children caused by the legal dissolution of the marriage.

....

(6) Effectuate economic justice between parties who are divorced or separated and grant or withhold alimony according to the actual need and ability to pay of the parties and insure a fair and just determination and settlement of their property rights.

23 P.S. § 102(a)(3), (4), (6). The 1980 Code thus suggests at the outset that, unlike its predecessor, it will allow alimony even after the termination of the marriage, subject to the terms and limitations of its particular sections.

Alimony is governed by Section 501 of the 1980 Code, which lists the factors the court must consider in fixing alimony. See 23 P.S. § 501(a), (b); Hess v. Hess, supra (reviewing Section 501 and the master's and court's duties to apply its criteria). Section 501 also provides:

(c) Unless the ability of the party seeking the alimony to provide for his or her reasonable needs through employment is substantially diminished by reason of age, physical, mental or emotional condition, custody of minor children, or other compelling impediment to gainful employment, the court in ordering alimony shall limit the duration of the order to a period of time which is reasonable for the purpose of allowing the party seeking alimony to meet his or her reasonable needs by:

(1)...