Woodward's Marriage, In re, 56642

• Decision Date: 21 May 1975
• Docket Number: No. 56642,56642
• Parties: In re the MARRIAGE OF F. Robert WOODWARD, Jr., and Judith A. Woodward. Upon the Petition of F. Robert WOODWARD, Jr., Appellant, and concerning Judith A. WOODWARD (now Judith A. Woodward Graves), Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 274

229 N.W.2d 274

In re the MARRIAGE OF F. Robert WOODWARD, Jr., and Judith A. Woodward. Upon the Petition of F. Robert WOODWARD, Jr., Appellant, and concerning Judith A. WOODWARD (now Judith A. Woodward Graves), Appellee.

No. 56642.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 21, 1975.

Rehearing Denied June 16, 1975.

Fuerste, Carew & Coyle, Dubuque, for appellant.

Alfred E. Hughes, Dubuque, for appellee.

Heard before MOORE, C.J., and MASON, LeGRAND, REES, and McCORMICK, JJ.

MASON, Justice.

This appeal arises from a controversy over whether periodic payments to the wife as provided for in a dissolution decree should terminate upon her remarriage. Implicit in this problem is whether the term 'alimony' as used by the district court actually referred to a property settlement. Petitioner, F. Robert Woodward, Jr., is appellant and respondent, Judith A. Woodward, now Judith A. Woodward Graves, is appellee.

June 10, 1959, Robert and Judith were married in Dubuque, Iowa. Three children were born of the marriage, namely Frederick Robert, III, January 11, 1960; Mona Jeanne, June 20, 1961; and John Duncan, October 21, 1963. The trial court found Robert and Judith were both good parents.

The marriage was a prosperous one, and the parties acquired substantial property, including a home valued at $35,000, a summer cottage, two automobiles, a houseboat and small runabout, stocks in various companies and several life insurance policies. Robert, employed at a newspaper company, was earning approximately $42,000 gross income per year. Judith was not employed and had no particular skills.

Unfortunately, the marriage relationship crumbled and was dissolved June 1, 1971. In its original decree, the trial court awarded Judith the family home, furniture and adjacent grounds, free of debts and encumbrances, one of the automobiles, 225 shares of stock of the Dubuque Bank and Trust Company, and custody of the children.

Robert was ordered to assume the $11,000 debt on the family home and was awarded the remainder of the assets. The court further provided for the support of Judith and the children as follows:

'For the support of said children, Petitioner shall pay into the Clerk of the above-entitled Court for the use of Respondent the sum of $1,300.00 per month on the 10th day of each month commencing with the 10th day of June, 1971 and continuing monthly thereafter until the youngest child then living shall have attained the age of 18 years. Further, as each child completes secondary school education, jurisdiction is retained for the purpose of determining whether Petitioner shall, at such time, provide such child with post high school training.

'The foregoing payments of support money shall be deemed to include alimony, and upon the youngest then living child having attained his 18th birthday, such monthly installments shall be reduced to the sum of $300.00 and continue thereafter until Respondent remarries or dies whichever occurs first. If Respondent has remarried prior to said child having attained the age of 18 years, then all payments shall cease on said child's 18th birthday.'

After the decree was initially entered, neither party appealed.

June 23, 1971, petitioner and respondent filed their 'Motion for Enlargement or Amendment of Findings of the Court and Modification of Judgment.' Basically, the parties desired a more definite recital of Robert's visitation rights and, more important, a finding as to what portion of the $1,300 per month was alimony. The latter request was related to the determination of alimony for income tax purposes.

June 25 the court amended its judgment and decree in relevant part as follows:

'As alimony and for the support of the children, Petitioner shall pay into the Clerk of the above-entitled Court for the use of Respondent, the sum of $1,300.00 per month on the 10th day of each month commencing with the 10th day of June, 1971 and continuing monthly thereafter until the youngest child then living shall have attained the age of 18 years. Further, as each child completes secondary school education, jurisdiction is retained for the purpose of determining whether Petitioner shall, at such time, provide such child with post-high school training. Of said $1,300.00 payment, $300.00 shall constitute alimony and $1,000.00 shall constitute support money.

'Upon the youngest child then living having attained his 18th birthday, such monthly installments shall be reduced to the sum of $300.00 and continue thereafter until Respondent remarries or dies whichever occurs first. If Respondent has remarried prior to said child having attained the age of 18 years, then all payments shall cease on said child having attained its 18th birthday.'

Robert apparently paid the $1,300 monthly. However, Judith remarried June 2, 1973, and June 13 Robert applied to the same court for an order terminating the $300.00 monthly alimony payments.

Both parties appeared with counsel and the court issued its order July 7, which appears in pertinent part as follows:

'Examination of the Decree originally written discloses that the Court found that the Respondent's expenses in maintaining a family for herself and her three children were approximately $15,500.00 and consequently set the monthly payments at $1,300.00 or $15,600.00 per year. Further, the Court made findings of the accumulated properties of the parties together with those properties owned separately by Petitioner and found that the nature of the same was such that division in kind would not be practical. On the other hand, Petitioner's income, after taxes, was such that it did not seem practical that he could bear any alimony payments made in the way of property settlement in addition to the monthly payments of $1,300.00. For that reason the Court assigned an arbitrary figure of $300.00 to that portion of the monthly payments attributable to alimony. It was for the reason that Respondent seemed entitled, in equity, to more than the home, automobile, and bank stock that she received as her share of the accumulated property of the parties, that the Court assured her of $300.00 a month until the youngest child attained the age of 18 years under any circumstances.

'IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that it is the Court's present interpretation of what was in the mind of the Court at the time of the entry of the Judgment and Decree that remarriage prior to the youngest child attaining the age of 18 years does not terminate the $300 alimony since the same, until that time, is in the nature of property distribution.'

Robert appeals from this order and asserts the $300 should have terminated upon Judith's remarriage.

I. Since this is an equity case, the supreme court reviews the facts de novo. 'Review of a decree granting dissolution of marriage, determining property rights and ordering alimony payments is de novo. It is our duty to examine the whole record and adjudicate rights anew on those propositions properly presented, provided issue has been raised and error, if any, is preserved in the course of the trial proceedings; while we give weight to the findings of the trial court, we will not abdicate our function as trier de novo on appeal. * * * (citing authority).' In Re Marriage of Novak, 220 N.W.2d 592, 597 (Iowa 1974).

The parties in this appeal do not question the propriety of the amount of alimony and child support or the property division, but simply Judith's continued right to receive the monthly $300 'alimony' after her remarriage to Dr. Graves.

Robert as appellant contends the provision in both the original decree and the decree as modified on the joint application of the parties is an award for alimony and not a portion of a property settlement made in connection with a just and equitable division of the property of the parties. He maintains that although Judith's marriage to Graves did not automatically terminate her right to receive alimony from her former husband, her second marriage created a prima facie case for termination of her right to alimony from Robert, absent unusual circumstances.

Judith, on the other hand, maintains the financial provisions made for her in the original decree as modified constituted a portion of a property settlement even though such provisions were labeled 'alimony'; thus such provisions cannot be modified in the absence of fraud, duress, coercion, mistake or other grounds as would justify the setting aside or changing a decree in any other case.

II. The first problem is the question of the trial court's intent in entering the dissolution decree requiring Robert to pay $1300 per month as alimony and for support of the children. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the original decree as well as paragraphs 3 and 4 of the decree as modified June 25, 1971, have been set out earlier.

The court in its ruling on the joint application of the parties to enlarge or amend the findings of the court in the original decree 'to cover specifically the matter of what, if any, portion of the $1,300.00 per month support money required under paragraph 3 of the Court's Judgment and Decree are or will be alimony, the parties being uncertain as to the tax consequences of such provisions, covered or alluded to in * * * paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Court's Judgment and Decree' declared 'of said $1,300.00 payment, $300.00 shall constitute alimony and $1,000.00 shall constitute support money.'

The modified decree did not specifically provide that the sum of $300 per month alimony due Judith should cease upon her remarriage prior to the youngest living child having attained his 18th birthday.

Robert's application of June 13, 1973, alleged Judith had remarried June 2, 1973. He asked the trial court to enter a decree establishing that his obligation to pay alimony to Judith ceased upon her remarriage.

Judith in answer admitted she had remarried but urged the court to continue the payments required to Robert in the sum of $1300 per month until the youngest living child...