Abstract

"The obligations of marriage cannot be thrown aside like an old coat when a more attractive style comes along." With this language, the Supreme Court of Arizona, in Gardner v. Gardner, held that although the alimony award of a divorce decree which terminated a prior marriage is not a "contracted debt" within the meaning of Section 25-216B of the Arizona Revised Statutes, which renders the community property liable for community debts contracted by the husband during marriage, nevertheless the community property of the second marriage is liable, as a matter of public policy, for the alimony obligations.

The husband, in this case, was divorced from his first wife in Nevada. A support order was entered which was later reduced to a judgment in Nevada. Meanwhile, the husband remarried and established his domicile in Arizona with his new wife. The first wife subsequently reduced the Nevada money judgment to an Arizona money judgment and the husband counterclaimed for a declaratory judgment exempting the community property of the second marriage from the Arizona judgment. Both parties moved for summary judgment on the counterclaim. The trial court entered judgment for the first wife and was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Arizona which, when confronted with the determination of the extent to which the first wife's judgment for alimony was collectible out of the community property of the second marriage, felt that as a matter of public policy the prior alimony obligation should reach all of the community property of the second marriage.

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