You are divorced and in your final orders you were awarded spousal maintenance on the basis of your disability and inability to earn sufficient income. So, you went through all of the stages of proving your disability and proving that you could not earn the money that you need to meet your minimum reasonable needs and the judge ordered that your ex-spouse a certain amount per month to you for a certain period of time. As you know, spousal maintenance is governed by Chapter 8 of the Family Code and with respect to a disabled spouse, it does state that maintenance can be ordered for as long as the disability persists (longer than the statutorily limited period of time). If it is nearing the ending date of your receipt of the monthly spousal support payments, you are becoming worried because you do not know what you are going to do at this point. Can you seek further maintenance from the Court because you are still disabled and need the money to survive?
This question was directly addressed in Stephanie Ann Novick v. Andrew A. Shervin by the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas. There, the trial court held that the wife was “presently disabled” and ordered that the husband should pay her “$2000 per month for 24 months.” When the time was drawing near for the husband’s payments to cease, the wife filed a motion to modify to continue the support payments and the trial court dismissed that claim to which the wife appealed. Therefore, the Dallas Court of Appeals had to determine whether or not the trial court erred in failing to honor the wife’s request in continuing the spousal support payments. In doing do, the Court reviewed a few other appellate cases involving this particular issue to seek guidance which led the Court to render a bright line rule to determine whether or not the support payments could be continued.
The Court held, “An award of spousal maintenance in a divorce decree is properly the subject of a motion for continuance only if the decree indicates the trial judge intended to make the award pursuant to section 8.054(b) rather than 8.054(a).” Section 8.054(b) allows a trial court to find the spouse disabled (giving guidance as to how and what it means) and in finding the spouse to be disabled, the trial court will make an award of maintenance. This award can be made subject to periodic request based upon the request of either party and also subject to a motion to modify. However, Section 8.504(a) places a duration limit on how long the court can award the maintenance for (5 years) and states that a trial court must render the shortest period possible unless the spouse’s ability to earn income is totally diminished by physical or mental disability. The key for this Court was that you can seek continuance of the maintenance if the award was under Section 8.054(b). An example of this type of award would be where a spouse is found to be permanently disabled, awarded spousal maintenance for longer than 5 years, and the Court also order that the spouse receiving support can seek continuance beyond the court-ordered termination date.
Therefore, based upon these sections, the Court held that they have to look to final decrees in each case to determine how the trial court awarded the maintenance. If this test outlined is not met, then the continuation cannot be granted. In the present case, the Court denied the wife’s appeal stating that the trial court held she was “presently disabled” and limited the duration to 24 months which was less than the maximum amount of time of duration and did not expressly provide a provision that would allow for the wife to file a motion to seek continuance of the maintenance.
Appellate cases are important because they provide looking glasses into the future as to what would happen if you do not take care of your case while still in the trial court phase. Thus, as you determine from this article, it is imperative to ensure that your rights are protected in the final order that is rendered by the trial judge—it is imperative that you ensure that the correct language is used so that you are not completely limited in the future. If you believe that you might have a spousal maintenance claim or have already been awarded spousal maintenance and need assistance in determining whether you can seek a continuation, contact Guest & Gray for a consult.