Does my ex-brother-in-law still have to pay alimony if he quits his job

[chachi1020]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

Ok, my sister recently went through a divorce. My Ex-Brother-In-Law typed up the Divorce Judgment paper that specified the details of spousal support and such. There are no kids involved. Part of the aggreement says that he will pay for half of her health insurance for 3 years. She has not had health insurance now for 2 months or so, and he blames it on his company, and says that she will be covered retroactively and everything. She is in a bad medical situation that if left unchecked could force her into the hospital. She cannot afford to go to the doctor as she doesn't work. The past few times she has talked to him about it he has threatened to quit his job if she keeps bugging about it, stating that according to the aggreement that he created he would not have to pay her anything until he got another job and then would go to court to have the amount reduced if his new job did not pay as much. I have pasted the exact part of the aggreement below.

• If I lose my job, or become unemployed during the aforementioned thirty-six (36) month period, I will not be responsible for any payments during that time, and payment would not roll over extending the 36 month payment period. Those particular weekly payment obligations become null and void only during that time.

My question is this - According to the terminology written here, would he in fact be able to stop payments if he quit his job? Would the term " If I lose my job, or become unemployed" be related to quitting his job, or would he have to be layed off or fired? And the possible second part of that would be if it would only be related to him getting layed off or fired, would that also apply to him getting himself fired (not showing up, or something like that, that would force his company to fire him)? Any help would be much appreciated. Please feel free to email me at [email]clobert@vcsolutions.com[/email]. Thanks again for any help.

Chuck

[Ohiogal]

We don't email. You need to read the question and any answers here. His agreement means nothing unless the court signed off on it. If the court put it into an order then it holds. However it is not normally with a voluntarily lack of employment. You must be unvoluntarily employed NORMALLY. There is much more information necessary.

[chachi1020]

Thanks for the reply. The court did sign off on it and I don't doubt that the document itself holds. I am just wondering if it would hold when dealing with a voluntary termination of employment. I appreciate the help you gave as far as normally it would have to be involuntary, but what more info would be needed to perhaps have a better idea in this particular situation. I will try to get any info that you need. Thanks again for the help and for any more help you can give. Thanks.

Chuck

[Bali Hai]

Originally Posted by chachi1020

Thanks for the reply. The court did sign off on it and I don't doubt that the document itself holds. I am just wondering if it would hold when dealing with a voluntary termination of employment. I appreciate the help you gave as far as normally it would have to be involuntary, but what more info would be needed to perhaps have a better idea in this particular situation. I will try to get any info that you need. Thanks again for the help and for any more help you can give. Thanks.

Chuck

The court ORDERED the SIGNED agreement. These judges aren't stupid. If the judge read this agreement and thought for one second that voluntary termination of employment would void the agreement, they would not have put it in the form of an order. The judge will use broad discretionary power entrusted to decide if a modification is necessary.

If the termination of employment is voluntary, my guess is the order to pay alimony won't be modified.

[chachi1020]

Thanks for the help. That's what I figured but I don't know anything about this stuff, so I wanted to get opinions from the experts. Any more info is much appreciated. Thanks.

Chuck