New York Law Journal, October 10, 2024 —
Many statutes have been on the books for decades in the State of New York. Some of those statutes have been amended over time to bring them current with evolving social realities. Other statutes, however, have remained the same.
An example of a statute that has largely remained untouched for years on end is Section 248 of the New York Domestic Relations Law (DRL). In general terms, DRL §248 empowers New York courts to modify a final judgment of divorce or order made with respect to alimony—termed “maintenance” in New York—upon proof that the payee “is habitually living with another person and holding himself or herself out as the spouse of such other person, although not married to such other person.”
The interplay between DRL §248 and current social realities was on display in the recent decision of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Justice Stacy D. Bennett) in the matter of Ceppos v. Ceppos.
In Ceppos, the parties married in 1987. They executed a Stipulation of Settlement in 2019, and they were officially divorced in 2020. The Stipulation of Settlement provided that the wife’s alimony payments “shall immediately terminate” upon the first to occur of several events, one of which was “Cohabitation by the [wife] pursuant to DRL §248.”
In support of the ex-husband’s motion to terminate his alimony payments, he argued that his ex-wife “habitually cohabitated” with her present fiancé “for years”, and that before the Stipulation of Settlement was signed, the ex-wife “acknowledged residing with her then-boyfriend but she represented that her cohabitation with her boyfriend was temporary and that she would secure an alternate residence in the event she received maintenance from the ex-husband.” The ex-husband claimed that his “reliance” on the ex-wife’s “misrepresentation was pivotal to the negotiation process.”
It comes as no surprise that the ex-wife argued that her ex-husband “knew that she was living with an unrelated male yet continued to make payments to her for a substantial period of time.” Further, while the ex-wife conceded that she was engaged to be married, she “never held herself out as married to her fiancé.”