Background
The parties’ 2013 dissolution judgment incorporated a marital settlement agreement requiring Osvaldo Gonzalez to pay Laura Gonzalez $285 every pay period. The provision said the payments should remain in effect until Former Wife remarried.
After Former Husband stopped paying in early 2024, Former Wife sought contempt and enforcement. Former Husband then petitioned to terminate or substantially reduce alimony, alleging retirement, reduced income, and a decrease in Former Wife’s need. The trial court granted Former Wife partial summary judgment, concluding that the agreement waived modification unless Former Wife remarried, and later entered a contempt judgment for $20,995 in stipulated arrearages.
The Court’s Holding
The Fourth District affirmed the contempt and enforcement portion of the final judgment, which Former Husband did not challenge. But it reversed the partial summary judgment barring his modification petition.
Florida’s statutory right to seek alimony modification is incorporated into an alimony agreement or judgment unless specifically waived. The agreement did not expressly make alimony nonmodifiable or waive either party’s modification rights. Its statement that payments would remain effective until remarriage identified a circumstance requiring termination; it did not make remarriage the exclusive ground for modification or termination. The court remanded for consideration of the merits of Former Husband’s petition.
Key Takeaways
- An alimony agreement must clearly waive modification rights to displace Florida’s statutory modification remedy.
- A provision terminating alimony upon remarriage does not, by itself, make alimony otherwise nonmodifiable.
- Unchallenged findings of willful nonpayment and ability to pay supported affirmance of the contempt judgment.
Why It Matters
Marital settlement agreements should use explicit nonmodification language if the parties intend to foreclose later statutory requests to modify alimony. Language identifying remarriage as a termination event, without more, does not establish that intent.