In some Missouri divorces, a judge may order spousal maintenance to be paid by one spouse to their ex-spouse to aide them with their living expenses and standard of living. Commonly these payments are referred to as alimony or spousal support, but Missouri law refers to these payments as "maintenance." The idea is that the lesser-earning "payee" spouse is only able to financially maintain themselves (and their lifestyle) with payments from the greater-earning "payor" spouse. Maintenance is completely separate from child support as it is intended to benefit the spouse, whereas the later is designed to pay for the needs of the children.
Maintenance is a common aspect of divorce that many couples will become familiar with. The determination of whether or not maintenance will be ordered in a particular divorce in Cass County, and the amount of maintenance ordered is multifactorial. At this time, the Missouri legislature has not created a set of guidelines which enable one to calculate the amount of maintenance that a spouse should receive or be required to pay. Due to this ambiguity, it is important to you and your pocketbook to discuss your case with an experienced cass county divorce attorney.
What is Maintenance?
In a nutshell, maintenance is a monthly payment paid by one spouse to the other after they separate or divorce. The purpose of maintenance is to support the lesser-earning spouse adjusting to having to pay all of their own bills and cost of living, to aide that spouse in getting back on their feet after the marriage or to maintain the standard of living they enjoyed during the marriage.
In Missouri, maintenance can be temporary, permanent and/or modifiable. Temporary maintenance is typically awarded during the dissolution case, and it allows for the financial support of the lesser-earning spouse until the divorce is finished and a final decision is made regarding maintenance. Alternatively, maintenance may be ordered in concert with the finalization of the divorce for a particular set of time that has a termination date, usually 1 year, two years, three years, etc.
Permanent maintenance is just want it states, maintenance is paid by one party to the other until either party dies or the payee spouse remarries. A court order of maintenance shall state if it is modifiable or non-modifiable.
An order of modifiable maintenance allows a court to change the amount of maintenance paid by the payor spouse if it becomes warranted. However, in order to modify a maintenance award one must show the court evidence of changes in the parties’ circumstances that are both “substantial and continuing.”
The Missouri legislature has outlined the eligibility and criteria for courts to implement when determining the ordering of maintenance in Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.335. A court may grant an order of maintenance to either spouse, but only if it finds that the spouse seeking maintenance: (1) Lacks sufficient property, including marital property apportioned to him, to provide for his reasonable needs; and
(2) Is unable to support himself through appropriate employment or is the custodian of a child whose condition or circumstances make it appropriate that the custodian not be required to seek employment outside the home. The most common scenario in which a court might order maintenance in a divorce case is where one spouse worked outside of the home and earned all of the family income, while the other spouse stayed at home, and does not have the education or marketable skills to support themselves financially in a comparable way. So maintenance is intended to replace the support the lesser-earning spouse received from the working spouse during marriage.
The Missouri legistlature has created a list of factors courts should consider when deciding if, how much and for how long maintenance should be paid from one spouse to the other. These factors are also listed in Mo. Rev. Stat. 452.335:
(1) The financial resources of the party seeking maintenance, including marital property apportioned to him, and his ability to meet his needs independently, including the extent to which a provision for support of a child living with the party includes a sum for that party as custodian;
(2) The time necessary to acquire sufficient education or training to enable the party seeking maintenance to find appropriate employment;
(3) The comparative earning capacity of each spouse;
(4) The standard of living established during the marriage;
(5) The obligations and assets, including the marital property apportioned to him and the separate property of each party;
(6) The duration of the marriage;
(7) The age, and the physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance;
(8) The ability of the spouse from whom maintenance is sought to meet his needs while meeting those of the spouse seeking maintenance;
(9) The conduct of the parties during the marriage; and
(10) Any other relevant factors.
Caselaw:
In the case of Weston v. Weston, 882 S.W.2d 337 (1994), the husband filed a motion to modify a previous order of maintenance because: (1). The payee spouse was cohabitating with another man; and 2). The payee spouse had not sought employment.
The parties had been married for 31 years after they met in Germany while the husband was in the military. The wife never worked during their marriage, but rather stayed at home to raise the three children from the marriage. During the divorce proceedings, the court found that the wife had no education or career training other than a GED, and that likely she would only be able to find minimum wage paying employment opportunities.
The court ended up marginally reducing the maintenance the payor husband was required to pay the ex-spouse. The court reasoned that the payee spouse's living expenses had decreased since the original judgment because she lived with another person in his residence. Also, the court reduced the maintenance marginally to consider the income the payee spouse could earn working a minimum wage job. What is important is that appellate courts in Missouri will give trial court judges broad discretion when it comes determining the applicability, amount and duration of maintenance. Because Missouri has no particular formula to determine the specifics of spousal maintenance, Missouri circuit judges are allowed to formulate their own figure when it comes to maintenance. The consequence of this is, once the judge makes their decision regarding spousal maintenance, it is extremely difficult to change the decision in the absence of a significant and likely permanent change in the circumstances from when the original maintenance judgment was made.
It can be challenging to predict if maintenance will be awarded, in what amount and for what duration in any particular divorce case. Unlike child support in Missouri which uses Form 14 to calculate the presumed amount of child support owed, there is no such calculator to determine maintenance. Also, in order to receive maintenance, the lesser-earning spouse must request maintenance in the pleadings in the dissolution case at hand. If you are man facing a divorce in Lee's Summit or Cass County, Missouri, it is important to consider all the facts in your case and then consult with an experienced family law attorney regarding the potential for maintenance. To schedule a consultation with our office, please call 816-287-1530.
Comments