Also known as: separate supports · separate maintenance
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Financial support that one spouse provides to the other for living expenses during a period of legal separation or when the spouses live apart without a divorce decree. The amount is determined by the need of the recipient spouse and the ability of the paying spouse to provide funds. Courts may award such support even when the couple continues to reside together in some jurisdictions.
Sean Steele and Sylvia Santos obtain a decree of separate maintenance. Their child is born 250 days later. The statute presumes Sean to be the parent because the birth falls within the 300-day period following the decree of separate maintenance.
After a New York court awards Mrs. Barber separate support and alimony, her husband moves to another state without paying. She sues in the new state to enforce the decree for her sole and separate support. The court orders payment of the accrued amounts plus interest.
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A New York court grants Mrs. Estin a decree of separation and alimony. Her husband later obtains a Nevada divorce. She seeks to enforce the prior separate maintenance award in New York. The New York court holds that the support obligation survives the foreign divorce decree.
Mary Alice Firestone files a complaint for separate maintenance against her husband. A magazine reports the outcome of the domestic relations litigation. She sues for libel over the published description of the separate maintenance proceeding and resulting judgment.
Spouses obtain a separation decree with alimony in State J. One spouse later seeks a divorce in State K. The question arises whether the foreign divorce must be given full faith and credit with respect to the prior separate support obligations. The court examines whether the later decree terminates the earlier maintenance award.
Spouses obtain a decree of separate maintenance in State J. One spouse later files a divorce action in State K that also seeks to modify support. The court treats the prior separate maintenance award as a distinct obligation that survives unless expressly terminated.
In some states a spouse may petition for separate maintenance at any time based solely on demonstrated need and the other spouse's ability to pay, without initiating dissolution proceedings.
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A child born within 300 days after entry of a decree of separation or separate maintenance is presumed to be the child of the spouses under the Uniform Parentage Act.
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A subsequent divorce obtained in another state may or may not terminate prior separate maintenance obligations depending on full faith and credit analysis and the law of the rendering state.
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Courts consider the recipient spouse's need arising from career sacrifices and lack of income together with the paying spouse's total earning capacity including base salary and variable bonuses.
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…certif. den. 23 N.J. 363 (1957), while the court stated that the doctrine of unclean hands may bar a cause of action for separate maintenance, it also observed that this defense was an aspect or application of the broader equitable principle that "he who seeks equity must do equity"; hence, the defendant in such an action could…