SCM NEWS & OPINIONS

McQuarrie v. McQuarrie, 2019 UT App 147 (Aug. 29, 2019)

Applying principles of contract interpretation, the court of appeals held that the presumption of automatic termination of alimony upon remarriage did not apply, because the decree not only omitted remarriage as a terminating event, but also contained a series of provisions that contemplated its occurrence.  These provisions included termination of other types of payments upon remarriage, a prohibition on providing information to future spouses, a limitation on designating a future spouse as beneficiary on an annuity, and continued payoff of a mortgage, even in the event that a party remarried.