Wolfe v. Wolfe

Murphy, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The parties in this case were married on August 27, 1948 and lived together as husband and wife until 1964 when they commenced living separate and apart. Three children were born of the marriage, the eldest of which had become emancipated prior to the institution of the proceedings upon which this appeal is based. On August 2, 1966, with advice of respective counsel, the parties entered into a “Custody, Support and Property Settlement Agreement”; subsequently, the agreement was incorporated into a divorce decree granted to the parties on September 22, 1966.

The agreement provided, among other things, that the husband pay $300.00 biweekly for the support and maintenance of the wife, plus an additional $900.00 per annum as a contribution towards the wife’s income tax. The agreement further provided that the wife’s support and maintenance payment “shall cease in the event said wife shall become deceased or remarried.” In addition, the agreement specified that the amount of the wife’s maintenance “shall be renegotiated” when any of their children reached majority, became emancipated, or died. Both parties complied fully with the terms of the agreement and decree until the appellant husband, in February of 1969, reduced the biweekly payments to the appellee wife on the ground that the oldest son had become emancipated. The wife promptly filed a petition to hold the husband in contempt of court for non-compliance with the agreement which had been incorporated into the divorce decree.

The husband filed a petition for modification of the decree, claiming that it was the real intention of the parties at the time the agreement was ex ⁵⁸³ ecuted that all or part of the biweekly payments were for child support, and not for the wife’s maintenance; that the parties had agreed to designate the biweekly payments as support and maintenance for the wife in order that the husband could obtain a fax deduction for all amounts paid; that the court should receive parol evidence to show the real intention of the parties; and that in view of this intention, the court should so interpret the agreement and modify the decree by reducing the biweekly amount to be paid by the husband to reflect the change in circumstances precipitated by the emancipation of the parties’ oldest son. The husband urged, in the alternative, that that part of the agreement involving the $300.00 biweekly payments, and requiring renegotiation of the amount thereof when the children reached their majority," died, or were emancipated, was unenforceable since it was too indefinite and uncertain to constitute a valid agreement. Following an evidentiary hearing, at which the court refused to permit the husband to introduce parol evidence to vary or contradict the express terms of the agreement, it concluded that the support and maintenance provisions in the agreement were valid and enforceable, notwithstanding the renegotiation clause, and that such provision constituted non-technical alimony which it could not modify. From an order finding him in arrears on his payments for the wife’s maintenance, and denying his petition for modification of the decree, the husband appealed.

Of four grounds advanced by the husband for reversal of the order, we find merit only in that which asserts that the Chancellor was in error in concluding that the biweekly payments for the wife’s support and maintenance constituted non-technical alimony which could not be modified. Parol evidence being inadmissible in this case to show that the biweekly payments were not for the wife’s support and maintenance, the agreement must be construed in accordance with its express terms. 1 On ⁵⁸⁴ its face the agreement is one solely to provide for the wife. The husband agreed to pay the wife $300.00 biweekly until she died or remarried. The agreement also provided that each party “waives, releases and relinquishes unto the other all rights or