General legal information furnished as a service of Fort Lauderdale / West Palm Beach family law attorney Janet Langjahr
A Florida man took his ex to court in an attempt to have his obligation to pay spousal support terminated.
The original support obligation was part of a marital settlement agreement, which provided that support would terminate upon the receiving spouse’s death or remarriage.
The receiving spouse neither died nor remarried.
So what was basis of the former husband’s argument?
His ex-wife is now a man.
Since a man can’t marry a man, a man can’t divorce a man and a man can’t be ordered to pay spousal support to a man, the ex-husband contended.
Good try, but the judge didn’t buy the argument.
The court held that the former wife’s birth gender was what mattered for this purpose and that the sex change operation didn’t qualify as a substantial change of circumstances for purposes of modifying or terminating the support obligation.
The former husband vowed to challenge this ruling as far as he could.
This Florida ruling is consistent with a similar ruling handed down in Ohio a few years back.
Read more in this CNN article: Judge: Ex still due alimony when she becomes he.
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