Stephen A. Raymond - Page 10

                                       - 10 -                                         
          support stipulation do not fix either in terms of an amount of              
          money or a portion of the 1991 temporary order payments any part            
          of those payments as a sum that is payable for the support of the           
          children of Mr. Raymond.4  See Commissioner v. Lester, supra at             
          306.  Inferences, intent, or other nonspecific designations of              
          payments as child support are not sufficient to override the                
          mandate of section 71(c)(1), see id., except as permitted by                
          section 71(c)(2).  Section 71(c)(2) does not apply here because             
          there is no amount specified in the temporary order that was to             
          be reduced, let alone upon the occurrence of a contingency                  
          specified in that order relating to a child of Mr. Raymond or at            
          a time that can clearly be associated with that kind of contin-             
          gency.  See sec. 71(c)(2).                                                  
               As for the third contention of Ms. Raymond that the 1992               
          divorce judgments confirm that the 1991 temporary order payments            
          are at least in part for child support, we find nothing in those            

          4  On Apr. 28, 1997, we denied Ms. Raymond's motion to reopen the           
          record in these cases to admit into evidence an order issued by             
          the Probate Court on Nov. 20, 1996 (1996 order) which denied a              
          motion filed with that Court by Ms. Raymond for "Court Definition           
          and Verification" that the 1991 temporary order payments were               
          payments for child support.  Assuming arguendo that the 1996                
          order were part of the trial record in these cases, it would not            
          have changed our holdings.  In this connection, we note that in             
          dictum in the 1996 order, the Probate Court stated:  "The parties           
          entered into a stipulation which designated such contribution by            
          husband to wife as alimony and child support".  Even if the 1996            
          order were part of the record herein, we would not be bound by              
          such dictum.  In any event, on the record before us, we have                
          found that the temporary order did not designate that a portion             
          of the 1991 temporary order payments was alimony and that a                 
          portion of such payments was child support.                                 




Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011