If a trial court issues a maintenance order in connection with the issuance of a divorce decree under the Pennsylvania Divorce Act, the alimony order may be amended, suspended, terminated, or reinstated if the circumstances of either party have changed significantly and are of an ongoing nature. Such an order, which modifies, terminates, or suspends a maintenance order under the Divorce Act, “applies only to payments made after the application for the relief sought.”
In the most recent case, Crocker-Fasulo v. Fasulo, 292 A.3d 591 (Pa. Super. 2023), the court considered a request for modification or termination of alimony filed by the husband. The relevant facts in the Fasulo case are as follows: When the parties married in 1982, the husband was studying medicine. After the parties married, the husband continued his medical education and the wife continued to work until the birth of the parties’ first child in 1987. The parties separated in 1998 and the wife filed for divorce some 11 years later in 2009. After a 2010 hearing, the court issued a final divorce decree in 2012 ordering permanent spousal support at $8,500 per month. After the divorce decree came into effect, the husband developed symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
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