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Collins v. Collins5/30/2002
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Under the circumstances, Lt. Col. Collins should not be held either personally liable or in contempt for any difference in payments should he receive a disability award. Because we are remanding this case for other reasons, we believe that it would be appropriate to enter an amended CPO with the award expressed in terms of the percentage of disposable retired pay to forestall any problems that might occur as a result of a disability award.
3. Reservation of the Issue of Alimony
Coupled with Lt. Col. Collins' arguments concerning the CPO is his complaint that the trial court improperly reserved the issue of alimony. Dr. Collins argues that the reservation of this issue is entirely proper, because her award will be reduced if Lt. Col. Collins is awarded disability pay.
The trial court's reasoning for its ruling was as follows:
Now, there is another issue in this case and that issue is raised by the defendant that he has applied for disability payment because of a disability that occurred while he was in the military service and if he is successful in being determined to be disabled, it will affect his military pension and if that occurs, that portion would not be, whatever he gets would not be marital property and would affect what the plaintiff receives. That is a non-issue I should say as far as I am concerned because it hasn't happened yet and I can't really deal with it. I can only deal with what the evidence is here.
But in the event that into the future the defendant is determined to be disabled, then at today's time, I am reserving the issue of alimony because in the event he is disabled and it affects the money that is paid on a regular basis because of the pension Mrs. Collins is receiving, it would be appropriate to re-visit the issue of alimony at that time. So for that reason, I am reserving on that issue. At the present time, Mrs. Collins is self-supporting and is not in need of alimony but depending on what the future brings, it may have to be re-visited. So I will reserve on alimony.
Dr. Collins cites Turrisi v. Sanzaro, 308 Md. 515, 520 A.2d 1080 (1987), in support of her contention that the court's reservation was proper. In that case, the parties had been able to resolve the bulk of the issues in their divorce by agreement. Both parties were medical doctors, but during the marriage, Dr. Sanzaro was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She wished to remain self-supporting, and the chancellor found that she declined alimony at the time of the divorce. "On the authority of Quigley v. Quigley, 54 Md. App. 45, 456 A.2d 1305 (1983), [the chancellor] held he had no power to reserve the question of future alimony." Turrisi, 308 Md. at 519. This Court agreed with the chancellor, although we remanded the case for further inquiry into other factors that might be relevant to an alimony award.
The Court of Appeals, in reversing that decision, traced the history of Maryland equity courts' treatment of alimony. It was "common practice for the equity courts to reserve jurisdiction over alimony, even though none was awarded at the time of the divorce." Turrisi, 308 Md. at 522. The Alimony Act was eventually passed and is now codified at Title 11 of the Family Law Article. The Court then looked to the Act to determine whether it abrogated the equity courts' "inherent power to award alimony, and inherent power to reserve as to alimony." As part of its review, the Court of Appeals also looked at the 1980 Report of the Governor's Commission on Domestic Relations Law ("1980 Report"), in which the Alimony Act was proposed. Turrisi, 308 Md. at 526.
The Commission recognized the existence of the inherent po
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