Marlin G. Springer - Page 25

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               In the instant case, the second paragraph of article 6 of              
          the marital settlement states that the liability to make the                
          annual payments to Ms. Springer will not terminate on either the            
          death of petitioner or the remarriage of Ms. Springer.  Unlike              
          the situation in Watters v. Foreman, 284 N.W.2d 850 (Neb. 1979),            
          the parties did not specifically state that the annual payments             
          would terminate on death or remarriage.  Instead, the parties               
          chose to specifically exclude the death of petitioner or the                
          remarriage of Ms. Springer as events causing termination.  In               
          Watters v. Foreman, supra, the parties stated one situation in              
          which the payments would terminate and one situation in which               
          they would not.  The court found that the parties’ statement that           
          the payments would terminate on the wife’s death effectively                
          limited the termination events to that specific occurrence and              
          precluded application of Neb. Rev. Stat. section 42-365 to                  
          statutorily terminate the payments on the wife’s remarriage.                
               Respondent’s position regarding the application of Watters             
          in this case would lead to an incongruous result.  Here, the                
          parties did not provide a termination event.  Rather, they                  
          specifically excluded from termination two of the three events              
          previously listed as causing termination in the prior related               
          paragraph.  The specific exclusion of two of the three events               
          from termination, in this context, without reference to the third           
          event, indicates that the third terminating event is still                  






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Last modified: May 25, 2011