Fuller v. Fuller’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “To justify modification of an alimony award, the changes in circumstances must be substantial or material. Moreover, the change in circumstances must be unanticipated, and the party seeking modification has the burden to show by a preponderance of the evidence that an unforeseen change has occurred. As a general rule, a court hearing an application for a change in alimony should look not only to see if the substantial change was contemplated by the parties, but most importantly whether the amount of alimony in the original decree reflects the expectation of that future occurrence. Many of the same considerations relevant to the initial setting of an alimony award may be applied in the modification context as well, including the parties’ standard of living during the marriage, each party’s earning capacity, and the supporting spouse’s ability to continue to support the other spouse. [W]hen a payor spouse seeks to reduce support obligations based on his diminished income, a court should consider the payor spouse’s earning capacity. Where a payor spouse’s actual income compared to his or her earning capacity is at issue, the court must closely examine the payor spouse’s good faith and reasonable explanation for the decreased income. However, a payor spouse can be found to be voluntarily underemployed even in the absence of a bad faith motivation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Woods v. Woods

2. “Whenever any husband or wife, pursuant to a judgment of divorce from the bonds of matrimony, has been required to make his or her spouse any periodic payments of alimony and the circumstances of the parties or the financial ability of the spouse making the periodic payments shall have changed since the rendition of such judgment, either party may apply to the court which rendered the judgment for an order and judgment decreasing or increasing the amount of such alimony payments or terminating such payments and the court, after giving both parties an opportunity to be heard and to introduce evidence relevant to the issue, shall make such order and judgment as justice and equity shall require, with due regard to the changed circumstances and the financial ability of the supporting spouse, decreasing or increasing or confirming the amount of alimony provided for in such original judgment or terminating such payments. [[Image here]]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Woods v. Woods