Hughes v. Hughes

I dissent from Section II B of the principal opinion, which holds the trial court erred in granting wife’s motion to dismiss.

The case presents a simple and common scenario. Parties to a divorce entered into a detailed settlement agreement specifying when maintenance might be modified. They dutifully sought to have the trial judge incorporate the separation agreement into the court’s judgment. But the preprinted form for dissolution judgments required that the judge characterize the maintenance as being either “not subject to modification” or “subject to modification,” pursuant to a local…