Background
The parties’ 2018 dissolution decree incorporated a separation agreement requiring David W. Kronbach to pay Jennifer L. Kronbach $8,000 monthly maintenance for eight years and nine months. The agreement characterized maintenance as “contractual and non-modifiable.”
Jennifer remarried in September 2023, and David stopped paying maintenance. She later sought a declaratory judgment that the nonmodification provision required payments to continue. A magistrate ruled that maintenance terminated upon remarriage, and the district court affirmed.
The Court’s Holding
The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed. Under section 14-10-122(2)(a)(III), future maintenance terminates upon the recipient’s remarriage unless the parties agree otherwise in writing or the decree expressly provides otherwise.
The agreement’s statement that maintenance was contractual and non-modifiable did not show an agreement to continue payments after remarriage. Read as a whole, the agreement addressed the husband’s death through a life-insurance provision but made no comparable accommodation for remarriage. The court also declined to award attorney fees to either party.
Key Takeaways
- A nonmodification clause alone does not necessarily preserve maintenance after the recipient remarries.
- Courts construe the separation agreement as a whole to determine whether the parties agreed in writing to displace statutory termination.
- Neither party received attorney fees: the husband did not breach the agreement, and his own fee requests were inadequately supported.
Why It Matters
Parties who intend maintenance to survive remarriage should make that intent clear in their written agreement. Broad language making maintenance “contractual and non-modifiable” may not overcome Colorado’s statutory rule terminating future maintenance upon remarriage.