On March 18, 2013, the Supreme Court decided a case regarding a Husband’s requirement to continue to pay Wife $1,200 per month after she dies. In this case, the parties did not share a child, but the Husband had helped to raise the Wife’s child. The parties agreed that if the Wife were to remarry before the child had graduated high school that Husband would continue to pay Wife $1,200 per month until the child graduated high school. The Court held that because the payments were not scheduled to begin until the Wife remarried, the payments could not be alimony. The payments were not property division, either, because they were contingent on the child graduating high school. The Court held that because they were simply a voluntary contractual obligation, these payments shall continue to the Wife’s estate. Therefore, the Husband had to continue to pay Wife $1,200 per month, even after her death.
