In re Marriage of Cohen

I. INTRODUCTION

The marriage underlying this case was sadly overburdened and failed. Unfortunately, the divorce is also problematic. Essentially, a very high earner making $1.9 million during the marriage agreed to a stipulated divorce judgment providing for above-guideline child and spousal support. In this appeal from what was (mostly) the denial of the high earner‟s postjudgment request for a reduction of his child support obligations to guideline and his request to terminate spousal support in the wake of the wife‟s remarriage, he presents two issues of law. (1) There was a clause in the stipulated judgment to the effect that any future modification proceeding would be reviewed de novo. Did that clause eliminate the usual change-of-circumstances rule that applies to postjudgment modifications? We answer no. The law does not allow litigants to agree to what are in effect “temporary” judgments, revisable at will. (2) There was a clause in the stipulated judgment that said if the high earner‟s ex-wife remarried to a person making less than $400,000 a year, the high earner would still keep paying her spousal support – but at a reduced rate. Did the ex-wife‟s remarriage terminate…