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W. Va. Code § 48-8-101

General provisions regarding spousal support

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 216 W. Va. 215 - Arneault v. Arneault (2004)

Most recently applied in 230 W. Va. 580 - Mary Beth Cochran v. Mark Iams Cochran (March 2013)

How often courts cite this section

20022010201310
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) An obligation that compels a person to pay spousal support may arise from the terms of a court order, an antenuptial agreement or a separation agreement. In an order or agreement, a provision that has the support of a spouse or former spouse as its sole purpose is to be regarded as an allowance for spousal support whether expressly designated as such or not, unless the provisions of this chapter specifically require the particular type of allowance to be treated as child support or a division of marital property. Spousal support may be paid as a lump sum or as periodic installments without affecting its character as spousal support.

(b) Spousal support is divided into four classes which are: (1) Permanent spousal support; (2) temporary spousal support, otherwise known as spousal support pendente lite; (3) rehabilitative spousal support; and (4) spousal support in gross.

(c) An award of spousal support cannot be ordered unless the parties are actually living separate and apart from each other.

Official source: West Virginia Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain West Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.