A separation agreement that adequately provides for a spouse’s support bars that spouse from later claiming permanent alimony.
The Statute Says So Directly
OCGA 19-6-8 permits a spouse, in cases of voluntary separation or where a spouse “is abandoned or driven off by the other spouse,” to make “an adequate provision for the support and maintenance of such spouse, consistent with the means of the party and the former circumstances of the spouse.” The statute then adds the consequence: “Such an agreement shall be a bar to the right of the spouse to permanent alimony.”
Adequacy Is the Whole Question
Notice what the bar depends on. The agreement has to make an adequate provision, judged against two yardsticks written into the statute: the paying spouse’s means, and the standard the receiving spouse had been living at. An agreement that provides little or nothing is not doing the work the statute describes.
The Bar Survives Without a Judge
The agreement does not have to be approved by a court to have this effect. In Hall v. First National Bank, 89 Ga. App. 853 (1954), the Court of Appeals applied the bar to an executed separation agreement and held it operated “although the contract is not made the decree of court, and although it does not specifically state that it is ‘in lieu of year’s support.’”
Reconciliation Can Undo It
Hall also identifies what defeats the bar. The agreement there was one “which has not been subsequently invalidated by agreement, by a renewal of the marital status, or by other means recognized in law,” and the Court emphasized that the parties had not resumed their marital relationship.
So moving back in together is not a small thing. Reconciliation can unwind the very agreement you signed to settle support.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!