California Court of Appeal

In this spousal support action in which a marital settlement agreement provided that the trial court would reserve jurisdiction to award long-term spousal support "until" the wife was released from prison, denial of spousal support to the wife is reversed, where: 1) the wife filed a motion for support five weeks before her release, set to be heard three days after her release, and the hearing was twice continued by the husband - once because he was out of the country and once so he could obtain the wife's vocational examination; 2) the reasonable interpretation of the settlement agreement language, borne out by circumstances and the parties' conduct, is that the hearing was to be held within a reasonable time after release; 3) if ambiguous, the language in a marital settlement agreement should be construed in favor of support; 4) if jurisdiction terminated the moment the wife was released from prison, she would have had to know the time of her release in advance; and 5) construing the word "until" such that the settlement agreement cuts against the wife in this manner is inequitable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/12/2014
• Published 11/12/2014

Judges

• Gilbert

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel