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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-135 Civil MARGARET M. REIDY, : IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF PLAINTIFF : CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA : V. : : THOMAS R. REIDY, SR., : DEFENDANT : 92-0135 CIVIL TERM IN RE: PETITION TO TERMINATE ALIMONY BEFORE BAYLEY, J. OPINION AND ORDER OF COURT Bayley, J., October 30, 2007:-- Thomas R. Reidy, Sr., age 60, and Margaret McMullen, age 59, were married on November 26, 1969. They separated on December 8, 1991. Their economic dispute June 15, 1993 was litigated before a Divorce Master. On ,a divorce and an order of 1 alimony was entered in favor of wife against husband for $600 a month. When the divorce was entered, husband was making approximately $73,000 a year. Wife was working part-time in retail sales making approximately $120 per week. April 17, 1995 On , following a hearing on a petition of husband to terminate the alimony, an order was entered lowering the alimony to $350 a month. At that time, husband’s annual income was still in the area of what it was two years earlier when the divorce was entered. Wife’s annual income was approximately $26,400. Husband filed a second petition to terminate the alimony on July 24, 1996. At that time, his annual income was $73,382. Wife’s annual income was $29,661. The petition was denied on 92-0135 CIVIL TERM October 22, 1996 . That judgment was affirmed by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania May 14, 2007 on January 22, 1998. On , husband filed a third petition to terminate the October 11, 2007 alimony upon which a hearing was conducted on . Husband had a career in information technology in the Federal Civil Service working for the United States Navy. When divorced, he was working at a Naval Facility in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County. Wife is from Scotland in the United Kingdom. At age fifteen, she was taken out of school and indentured. While married and living in Cumberland County, she obtained a GED at the Cumberland Valley High School. She has worked in office/sales positions. In June, 2003, husband was working at his federal position in London, United Kingdom. He was earning approximately $90,000 a year. The position was transferred to Naples, Italy, where he did not want to go. He returned to the Naval facility in Mechanicsburg where he learned that the government was outsourcing its requirements for information technology. He could have stayed in Mechanicsburg in another position while still making approximately $90,000 a year. However, he did not like that position, and in July, 2003, at age 56, he accepted an $18,000 incentive to retire. He started receiving a taxable federal retirement annuity that is now $68,000 a year. He receives medical insurance for which he makes a contribution. In 2004, husband took a full-time job with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was working in the office of the Governor at an annual income of approximately 1 For ease of reference we will still refer to them as husband and wife. -2- 92-0135 CIVIL TERM $96,000, when he was terminated, without fault, on January 12, 2007. He testified that since then he has been looking for work in his field of information technology. He has put in seven applications, the most recent in mid-September, but has not been accepted for any position. Husband has approximately $80,000 in savings. He remarried on May 5, 1999. His new wife Nancy also works in a civilian capacity for the 2 Navy in a job that is currently in Washington, D.C. She rents an apartment there where she stays during the week. She spends her weekends with husband at his home that he owns in Harrisburg, Dauphin County. Wife has not remarried. She was awarded the marital home which she sold in 1995, netting approximately $60,000. She then moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, and purchased a condominium for $95,000, where she still lives. The mortgage balance is approximately $74,000. She used all of the proceeds from the marital home to settle in Virginia, except $17,000 which she still has saved. In 1996, wife had gross annual income of $27,476. Since December, 2006, she has been working for a temporary agency in an office job at Norfolk Southern Railroad. She earns $20 per hour for forty- three hours a week, without benefits. The project she is working on will be completed at the beginning of November 2007, and the availability of additional office work at Norfolk Southern will be limited to fifteen hours per week. Wife has also been working for an average of six hours a week at the Officers’ Equipment Company where she earns $20 per hour, without benefits. Wife testified that as soon as her hours are cut __________ 2 In 2006, she and her husband had a combined annual income of $216,591. -3- 92-0135 CIVIL TERM back at Norfolk Southern she will seek another full-time job. She has no retirement benefits or health insurance, the latter of which she testified she cannot afford. She is generally in good health but does have stress syndrome that prevents her from working in a job where there is significant stress. She left a job a few years ago because of that condition. Currently, wife’s projected social security benefit at age 65 will be 3 approximately $700 a month. The Divorce Code at 23 Pa.C.S. Section 3701(e) provides: Modification and termination.— An order [of alimony] entered upon pursuant to this section is subject to further order of the court changed circumstances of either party of a substantial and continuing nature whereupon the order may be modified, suspended, terminated or reinstituted or a new order made. . . . (Emphasis added.) Husband’s situation is unique. He chose to retire four years ago at age 56 which resulted in a decrease in his income. He is now only 60 years old and there is no evidence that had he continued for the federal government that he would not at least be making the $90,000 a year he was making when he retired. After his retirement, husband hit the jackpot for three years when he obtained another job making over $90,000 a year in addition to his retirement income which was in excess of $65,000 a year. Since January of this year, he has not found a position he wants so he has chosen not to work at all to offset his alimony obligation which is a tax deductible $4,200 a year. In contrast, wife, in order to make ends meet, has been working two __________ 3 Husband will not receive social security because he is receiving a federal retirement annuity. -4- 92-0135 CIVIL TERM jobs for a total of 49 hours a week. That has increased her income from the time the -5- 92-0135 CIVIL TERM last alimony order was entered in 1995; however, neither of these jobs provides medical or retirement benefits. Wife has not had the income to accumulate the type of savings that husband has. Furthermore, due to the temporary job she has at Norfolk Southern Railroad, her hours will be dramatically decreased in November. That will require her to seek other employment which may or may not provide her the $20 per hour she is now making. Overall, we are satisfied that wife has a continuing need for alimony which husband has the ability to pay and there has not been an involuntary change of circumstances of either party of a substantial and continuing nature that warrants termination of the order of $350 per month. Accordingly, the following order is entered. ORDER OF COURT AND NOW, this day of October, 2007, the petition of Thomas R. IS DENIED. Reidy, Sr., to terminate alimony, By the Court, Edgar B. Bayley, J. Jacqueline Verney, Esquire For Margaret M. Reidy Diane Radcliff, Esquire For Thomas R. Reidy, Sr. :sal -6- MARGARET M. REIDY, : IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF PLAINTIFF : CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA : V. : : THOMAS R. REIDY, SR., : DEFENDANT : 92-0135 CIVIL TERM IN RE: PETITION TO TERMINATE ALIMONY BEFORE BAYLEY, J. ORDER OF COURT AND NOW, this day of October, 2007, the petition of Thomas R. IS DENIED. Reidy, Sr., to terminate alimony, By the Court, Edgar B. Bayley, J. Jacqueline Verney, Esquire For Margaret M. Reidy Diane Radcliff, Esquire For Thomas R. Reidy, Sr. :sal