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have accrued prior to the date of service of process on
a petition to modify, orders for alimony may be
modified or revoked for good cause shown, but when
alimony is not allowed in the original decree
dissolving a marriage, such decree may not be modified
to award alimony. Except as otherwise agreed by the
parties in writing or by order of the court, alimony
orders shall terminate upon the death of either party
or the remarriage of the recipient. [Emphasis added.]
The pertinent issue in the instant case is whether petitioner and
Ms. Springer “otherwise agreed” in the marital settlement (or the
court ordered in the divorce decree) that the annual payments
would not terminate on the death of Ms. Springer.
Respondent, citing Watters v. Foreman, 284 N.W.2d 850 (Neb.
1979), argues that Neb. Rev. Stat. section 42-365 does not apply
because the annual payment provision in article 6 of the marital
settlement was not silent as to all termination procedures. The
issue in Watters was whether the remarriage of the wife resulted
in the termination of alimony by operation of Neb. Rev. Stat.
section 42-365. Under the decree, the husband was required to
pay the wife $1,000 per month for a period of 10 years and 1
month. Id. at 852. The decree stated that the payments were to
cease on the death of the wife but not on the death of the
husband. Id. The decree was silent regarding the husband’s
liability to make the payments if the wife remarried. Id.
The Supreme Court of Nebraska had to decide whether the
parties had “otherwise agreed” within the meaning of the statute
and, therefore, the remarriage did not terminate the husband’s
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