- 9 - Divorce were alimony before the court of appeals rendered its opinion in 1991. It is less clear, however, whether the payments are alimony after the court of appeals remanded the case to the trial court. If the effect of the court of appeals opinion was to specifically remove the termination upon death language in the Judgment of Divorce, the payments made by Gregory Ryan to Frances Ryan may not be alimony under Michigan State law. If, however, the court of appeals opinion modified the Judgment of Divorce, yet left the termination upon death provision intact, the payments clearly are alimony. The court of appeals opinion states in pertinent part: the trial court ordered that defendant be paid alimony until death or changed circumstances. We note that defendant requested only an eight-year alimony award. In light of defendant's testimony that she would require alimony for eight years, we find the trial court's order of permanent alimony improper. Accordingly, we remand for modification of the divorce judgment to reflect an alimony award of $250 a week for eight years. In light of the language contained in the court of appeals opinion, we find that the termination upon death provision contained in the Judgment of Divorce was not modified by the higher court's opinion. The issue raised in the appeal was the length of the alimony payments, not whether the payments were in fact alimony. We conclude that the original nature of the payments was not changed; instead, the payments were merelyPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
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