Deatherage v. Wallace (In Re Deatherage)

MEMORANDUM

CLIVE W. BARE, Bankruptcy Judge.

At issue is whether the debtor’s obligation pursuant to an irreconcilable differences divorce decree to pay his former wife $96,000.00 in 121 consecutive monthly installments comes within the Bankruptcy Code’s § 523(a)(5) 1 exception to discharge for alimony, maintenance, or support.

I

After twenty-two years of marriage the defendant wife 2 and debtor husband separated in March 1982 and subsequently obtained an irreconcilable differences divorce on December 14, 1982. The parties had two children, a son who had reached the age of majority at the time of…