In Re the Marriage of Johnson

ALLBEE, Justice.

The important question presented by this appeal is whether a trial court, in response to a petition for modification of an original decree of dissolution, can relieve one party of responsibility for payment of marital debts which the original decree had ordered that party to pay, and thus shift the burden of those debts to the other party.

A brief factual background will aid in an understanding of how this matter arose. The nearly eleven year marriage of Ulysses and Anita Johnson was dissolved by decree on August 1, 1977. Anita, the respondent, was given custody of the parties’…